So, how are we going to round things out this week?  By turning things around!  Yep, the tip is to use the shoot through umbrella as it’s own reflector!  Take a look at the results.  I took a picture of the world (okay, it was a globe in our spare bedroom) from the flash in two different setups:

While it’s always better to shoot with your flash off-camera, this is probably the best lesson in showing that just because your flash is off-camera doesn’t make it good light!  Yes, it’s better than on camera lighting, but look at that harsh specular highlight, and how…well, boring the photo on the left looks.  Then consider the photo on the right – the hottest part of the light is nowhere near as specular (bordering on not even becoming a specular highlight…), and the diffused, reflected light gives some nice character and a sense of depth lacking in the first.

Here’s the lighting setup for each shot:

So, as you can see (hopefully), this demonstrates that turning things around (not just your camera) can have a surprisingly good effect from time to time.  It really becomes subjective at this point, and some may prefer one style over another, but that’s part of what makes the craft so enticing – you are limited by nothing more than your vision!

Thanks for tuning in to this unique week-long series on off-camera lighting – I hope you enjoyed reading these tips as much as I enjoyed writing them!

On that note – I’d like to ask you for more ideas on some themes and topics in this vein.  This really seems to have resonated based on the traffic, email, and feedback I have gotten thus far, but I do want to keep content moving in directions you are interested in, so feel free to chime in the comments with ideas, thoughts, and feedback not only on existing content, but asl on ideas thoughts and feedback for new content down the road!

Have a great weekend (don’t forget, today is the last day to get your entries in for the November Flickr contest) and be sure to stop back next week for the year-end wrap up on a bunch of product reviews – and you know what that means!

Quite a bit already, and we’re almost done, so I’d like t round things out with a little bit of stabilizing.  You see, while light stands are great for moving your flash off-camera, they’re not the most stable things around.  Certainly not like a tripod for your camera!  Why is that?  The answer is in the physics – a light stand is typically a single pole that is extended into the air, whereas a tripod is three poles that converge at a point (your ball head or camera mount).  Whereas the former has each other to lean on and stabilize things, your light stand doesn’t have this benefit.  But, you can minimize the wiggle!  Here’s how…

Most light stands will have a three-legged base which collapses down to help with portability and to compact the size.  I’ve seen people take light stands out, and the first thing they extend all the way are those three legs.  Don’t!  When you take the three legs to their maximum height, yes, you are getting more height, but you are losing leverage and stability!  Don’t!  Instead, do this:

See how in the first example the legs are high, narrow and only have three points touching the floor – this invites a top-heavy rig, which is always more likely to topple over.  If you sacrifice those 3″ at the bottom, look what you can gain!  A wider stand base = more stability, a lower light stand = additional stability, and then the addition of the center point for even more stability!  The one on the left is how it’s supposed to be done.

For an added corollary, you can also bring sand or water bags to your shoot and fill them when you get there…then place the bags inside that little “pocket” that is formed for even more of a weighted base that will further reduce toppling risks!  (Consider it a Light Stand Tip 4A!)

Tomorrow we wrap up the week of lighting do’s and don’ts when using light stands and shoot-throughs!  I hope you’ve enjoyed these as much as I enjoyed writing them (it’s always fun to do a series like this, because it has a beginning, middle and end – which makes for nice writing projects!)

The bare flash

The results are not atypical of what one would expect.  We can see quite a bit more diffusion over a flash fired with no shoot through at all.  The light is cast much wider across the umbrella, and a certain amount of diffusion can be noted.  However, we can also see a hot spot of light in the top half of our umbrella.  Bad?  Not necessarily, considering either shooting with no umbrella, or worse – using the flash on camera!   But can we make it even better?  Let’s try!

Flash+Reflector

An interesting result!  We see the light now is carried through more of the umbrella bu looking at the center point as our frame of reference.  See the light expanding a little further down past that center point?  Cool!  But also, look what happened at the top – the reflector took light from the top and bounced it down to the bottom as we clearly have a shadow line going across there.  Hmmm, not sure I like that, so let’s try another improvement!

Flash+Diffuser

Now we’re talking!  Look at that light!  It’s clean and even throughout the umbrella!  No lines from a reflector, and nowhere near as much spill over the edges of the umbrella itself.  This is some nicely diffused light!  But wait – can we take it even further?  Let’s try one last thing, just to see what happens!

Flash+Diffuser+Reflector

Uh oh, we over-thought it!  The light is still pretty evenly diffused and spread across the umbrella, except for that one rectangle area across the top where apparently the reflector blocked the light from getting to – thus creating a shadow.  For me, it looks like #3 was the best choice of flash controls.  Here – take a look at all four side-by-side-by-side:

Flash Comparisons

I’ve circled the areas that caught my eye in terms of the quality of light – what I like and what I dislike about each – with labels under each setup.  As noted above – my preference is for #3.  The lesson learned here?

Use the built in diffuser when using a shoot through umbrella for a nice even light source!

As in all things though, it’s not a “my way or the highway” mentality – all thoughts and opinions are welcome!  So, which one(s) did you like best? #1? #2? #3? #4?  Sound off with your own thoughts in the comments or via email – feedback and discussion is always encouraged!

*****

Contest Reminder:  Only a few days left to enter the Image Wizards contest.  No fuss, no muss, just enter your image in the Flickr thread for a chance to win a 16×20″ print from them (as judged by yours truly!).

Be sure to stop back in tomorrow for the fourth installment of how to get the most out of a single light setup!

In yesterday’s post, I showed how light can spill over an improperly mounted umbrella. I got a few emails noting that light does seem to still spill over the top of even a properly mounted one.  While that’s right, there’s a couple things to keep in mind.  First off, the flash is mounted to a trigger, not to the light stand directly.  This does raise the flash a tad (about an inch), and while that may not sound like much, it can increase the spill.  Now there are some triggers that are extremely low profile or that can rotate to lower the height of the flash by angling it forward, but there are downsides here too.  If you think about the idea of moving the head of the flash closer to the umbrella, you are essentially decreasing the amount of fill that your shoot thru will get.  The light will be more concentrated, (a.k.a. hotter) the closer it gets to the umbrella.  Conversely, the further away from the umbrella, the more diffused it will be.  Take a look:

Now, again, the terms “wrong” and “right” are subjective, because you may want a hotter light from your shoot thru.  The only thing I would say to that though, is that if you want a hotter light – why use the umbrella in the first place?  A shoot thru is designed to reduce the “hot” factor of the light and make it more even and diffused.  You can best accomplish this by positioning the light as far back on the umbrella as possible.  How far?  I usually leave about a quarter of an inch to an inch just so I can grab the umbrella if needed from the back side.  You can position yours where ever you like – just remember the “hot factor”!

Don’t forget to come back tomorrow for Part 3!  I bet this is one a lot of you will likely say “Now, that is cool!”  In the meantime, keep sharing your own ideas, tips and tricks for getting the most out of your lighting gear!

*****

P.S.  A couple admin notes – the monthly giveaway is almost done (with a 16×20″ print from the folks at ImageWizards at stake), so get your shots in on the Flickr thread before Friday!  Next week is review week on the blog too, with books, gadgets, lenses, even a camera, and of course, the annual Holiday Gift Guide!

1.  Avoid changing your lenses in the field – Let’s face it, dust enters from any uncontrolled area, and the area where you have the least control is in the field.  I’ve seen folks change out lenses in the field all the time, so it’s certainly not going to damage your camera or sensor unless you are completely reckless, but anything that opens your sensor to the ambient air also exposes it to ambient dust.  Wanna know how much dust is actually in the air?  Turn on a flashlight in the dark!  We oooh and ahhh over beautiful sunbeams in photos – what’s actually happening though is sunlight bouncing off dust particles in the air!

2.  Point it Down – If you have to change your lenses out in the field because you only have one camera body (like me), or for some other reason, don’t let gravity help!  Point the front end of your camera toward the ground when swapping out lenses.  In general, things fall down not up, so by pointing the sensor toward the ground, dust is less likely to settle in there.  It will take a bit of practice, because in essence, you are swapping a lens out blind, but this just speaks to the principle of knowing your gear!

3.  Be quick – So many times I’ll see photographers think of swapping that wide angle lens with a zoom, prime or some other lens.  The first place they go is the camera!  They take the lens off, cap the lens, put it in the camera bag, pull out the other lens, uncap it, and then mount it to the camera on their tripod.  Meanwhile, the camera sensor has been exposed for about 60 seconds.  That’s a long time to be exposed to the elements.

Cleaning a sensor is tricky, but cleaning a lens is a simple wipe from a microfiber cloth and a dab of lens cleaner.  I do it the opposite way.  I take the destination lens out, uncap it, and even position it right next to my camera.  Then in one fluid motion I unlock the lens on-camera, twist it off, and put the new lens on.  Cap the old lens, put in the camera bag, and the sensor was only exposed for about 3 seconds!  Which do you think lets more dust in: 3 seconds or 60?

4.  Use a dust bag – In some environments, there is dust everywhere.  I’ve shot on beaches in South Carolina, dusty conditions in Colorado and Mexico, and more places than I can count where the amount of dust in the air was just nasty.  For circumstances like that, it might be worthwhile to consider a dust bag.  The idea here is to insert your camera and the new lens into a bag where there is no dust, and swap out lenses inside that.  They are usually translucent s0 you can see what you’re doing,  and you don’t have to worry about keeping the sensor face down. The caveat to this is that by inserting a camera and lens inside one of these bags, you are already introducing dust, so the “clean” environment theory is blown right there.  Unless you are trying to change your lens in a sandstorm in the desert, this one is not as high on my recommendation list – but that’s not to say it is without merit whatsoever.

5. Cap the camera – A lot of people forget that their cameras come with a custom cap so that when there is no lens attached, you can put the camera cap in place to help protect it.  Sure, I usually have a lens mounted and at the ready, but if you are not deft enough with your hands to remove a lens and attach a new one, the camera cap can be a great interim step.  Also consider this – what if you send a camera in for cleaning?  Do you really want to send that 70-200 f2.8 lens in with it?  Extra weight, extra shipping, extra handling, all make for more possible damage and loss points – why put even more gear out there like that?  Cap your camera!

***

There ya have it – 5 ways to clean, 5 times to clean, and 5 methods to avoid sensor dust on your camera!  Whew!  What a week of sensor talk!  What are your thoughts on the topic?  Did I cover it in enough detail?  Too much?  How and when do you clean your lens?  What’s your best strategy to avoid the dust bunnies?  Sound off in the comments, or via email, as always!  You know I love to hear from the reading audience!

Anyway, that’s it for this week kiddos – have a good weekend and keep on shooting.  Just a teaser of a preview for ya…as next week is gonna be a fun one!  If I can get off my $%^& and finish some writing this weekend, there will be a couple book and lens reviews forthcoming, as well as a surprise release for all you newsletter subscribers (I’ve not forgotten you)!

Most of the time, it involves answers that include explanations of pixel based editing versus parametric editing, and lots of other technical reasons as to why certain things can’t happen in LR.  But sometimes (and this is the best part), I find out they are adding to their work flow because it can be done in Lightroom!  One of the most common ones is masking effects.  When I show people this, I almost always get a “Holy Cow!” or some other variation on the “cow” part.

So, today I thought I’d share a quick tutorial on how to implement masking edits in Lightroom.  Let’s take a look at the base image I am using here – a boat dock on Raquette Lake in the Adirondacks of upstate NY:

So, the dock here is a significant portion of the subject, but it’s way darker than the rest of the image, and really could be increased by a stop or two relative to the sky.  So, rather than round trip to PS, let’s see what we can do here.  I’ll start off with making a general masking selection of the entire area.  So I check the Adjustment Brush (near the top of the Develop Module on the far right hand side), and then at the bottom of the image (over on the left), there’s a box that says “Show Selected Mask Overly”.  I check that box.  Then I just start painting!

It’s a prety broad brush I’ve used, so we need to clean it up, as some of the water got caught and that will leave an ugly halo effect if I don’t take care of it.  So, to get more detailed selections completed, I zoom in, and then switch to erase mode while still showing the mask.  This is in the lower options of the Adjustment Brush, on the right hand panel – see where it has “A”, “B”, and “Erase”?  Click the erase and start painting again to undo the mask:

You, of course, will have to adjust the size, feathering and opacity of your brush to taste, and to accommodate your brushing technique as needed (hint:  Wacom tablets work better than regular mice or trackballs).  Once you’re finished with your refining of the mask, go ahead and uncheck the option to display the mask and see your results.

At this point you can actually do something else kind of cool – hover your mouse over the dot that is on display and then slide it to the left or right as you see the exposure increase and decrease for the selected area!  Pretty cool, eh?  This same technique works with other features in the adjustment brush, whether you are working on eyes, teeth, dodging, burning, or even skin softening.  The scrubby slider is a nice feature in here.  Then, finally, one thing I’ll do is make a side-by-side comparison of the image in a before and after mode to make sure my changes aren’t too garish or over the top (you can do a side-by-side comparison, top and bottom comparison and even split the screen between the two for a more detailed look):

Looks pretty good for this quick tutorial…and here’s the final image after our masking edits are done:

Now I grant you that this is probably not a portfolio image, but it hopefully was helpful in illustrating how you can mask and edit your photos inside of Lightroom without having to do the round trip as often to Photoshop!

Like this tip/trick?  Got any other comments, questions, or curiosities of how to leverage Lightroom more in your own work flow?  Sound off in the comments!  Have a great weekend and we’ll see you here back on Monday!  Happy shooting!

*****

P.S.  This is the final weekend before the contest wraps up, so if you’d like a chance to win a copy of Photo Rescue and a cool Canon coffee mug (courtesy of the folks at Photojojo), then don’t forget to get your image in soon!  Tick tock, tick tock!  Clock is ticking! Submit your images here!

Having said that, I am starting to get more right than wrong lately, and the portion of my income that is generated by the blog, podcast, and writing has seen something of an increase relative to my “real job” revenue (in IT).  So, what’s been my secret to “finding clients”?  Here are 4 methods I’ve used the most to attract people to the blog, the podcast, the contests, and my writings:

#1 – Be personable

With so many people out there that offer products and services, there’s bound to be someone that can do exactly what you do.  Or, they can do it better.  For the same price!  Or less!  Or free!  How can anyone expect to compete with that in today’s day and age?  It should come as no surprise to most that what sets you apart from others isn’t your service, it isn’t your product, marketing, revenue, client list or anything like that – at the end of the day what sets you apart is you! People will come to you because they like your approach, your personality, and how you treat them.  In my case, that means people come to listen to the podcast, or read because they like my attitude as much as my content.  The same holds true in your business – so rule # 1 is to be yourself!  I do that by socializing with fellow photographers through meet-up outings (like photo walks), user groups (like DALPUG), and basically staying engaged and connected with my peers and colleagues.

#2 – Be reachable

Let’s face it, with Twitter, LinkedIn®, forums, websites, email, instant messaging and smart phones all giving us 24/7 access to whatever we want anymore comes with a price.  With our access to others comes a certain measure of reciprocity, which means others also expect some measure of access to us.  While you don’t have to give answers or respond to inquiries within seconds or minutes – make it a general rule to respond to people within 24 hours during the work week. After all, with e-commerce moving at lightning speeds, not responding to an email or message in a timely manner can be a deterrent as much as anything else, so be reachable!

On weekends if you prefer to shut off, that’s fine, but let people know.  On Friday, set up an out of office message and say that.  “I’ll be spending the weekend with the family – looking forward to the down time.  I’ll be back on Monday!”  This lets people know that you like to hear from them, and will respond, but that it isn’t as immediate as you normally are.

#3 Be approachable

I spent an afternoon with someone a while back who was pretty well known in local circles.  The subject of conversation was photography of course, and in the course of discussion just got a sense that this person not only was well-known, but knew it.  I wasn’t talked down to by any means, but I got the distinct impression that I should be “honored” to be graced with his presence and flattered that he gave me a few hours to talk.  While it was all well and good, the conversation made it seem like I should be quick, get to the point and don’t waste time.

While we all have multiple commitments, and are moving at what feels like the speed of light just to keep up, it often can come across as an attitude.  Make sure when you are with colleagues, clients, or potential clients (because you know to treat everyone the same, right?), that you slow down, listen as much as you talk, and pay attention to cues that you might be giving off the wrong vibe.  This guy was so engrossed in talking about his latest project he just assumed that I was interested, would be flattered to even be considered for inclusion in it, and didn’t realize that I hadn’t talked for almost20 minutes.

Suffice to say, he was a little surprised when I did the wrap up.  “Well, thanks for your time, it was fun talking to you.    I’ll have to pass on the project right now as I’ve got too many other ‘irons in the fire’, so to speak.  If I have more time next year, I’ll let you know then.”

#4 – It’s okay to not know everything

There is nothing wrong with showcasing and highlighting your strengths and minimizing your weaknesses in anything whether it be a pitch to a potential client, or even showcasing your body of work or resume to a potential employer.  It is another thing altogether though, when in discussions to say “I can take care of that” to any question that comes up.  If your knee jerk response is to say yes to everything, you could be in for a serious problem come delivery time and they realize your InDesign® skills are far inferior to your Photoshop® and photography skills.

Clients can (and will) ask for the world.  It’s important to keep them on track and your time scheduled carefully.  Taking on anything and everything to get the gig will not only reduce your total revenue for the job in terms of labor hours, but quality will suffer, and the client will often leave unhappy.  Unless you want scores of unhappy former clients giving less than stellar feedback, because you promised ABC and D, but only really gave them A and B, it’s a good idea to not promise the world.  In my experience it’s always better to under-promise and over-deliver rather than the other way around.

So, there you have it – four tips for finding clients.  It may not be the most sexy thing in photography, but it can increase your revenue streams to those ends exponentially.  I’ve found that these principles and a dose of common sense can be a good foundation for starting any business, but it especially works in the field of photography…based on what I’ve seen thus far.

Having said that, I am of course not an expert in the field, so I’d like to turn the question outward – what techniques have others used to find success in their markets?  Others have told me that networking among peers is a good thing – when a friend can’t take a gig, it helps to be in regular contact with that friend, because then they might refer the potential client to…yup, you!  But that’s just one I’ve heard from colleagues.  What about other tips and tricks for finding clients?  Sound off in the comments!  Have a great weekend, and we’ll see you here next week to wrap up the Month of May! (Which means someone is gonna win a Hoodman Loupe too – have you entered your own image yet?  It’s not too late to enter:  Flickr thread here!)

After I do this, I simply look up at the top of Lightroom while in Library mode to filter my collection for either picks or rejects. From my approach, I do the rejects first, then CMD/CTRL A to select all and delete! Then from the picks, I’ll go through and make whatever edits I need, even including round trips to Photoshop, Photomatix, or whatever 3^rd party software I happen to need or be using at the time.  This is always so much easier with Auto Advance enabled. I can fly through a shoot of 500+ images in about 20 minutes both to clean up the catalog, and make the picks of what will likely be in the final published album. Give it a whirl and see if it improves your work flow!

Got your own tips or tricks for Lightroom, Photoshop, or simple camera techniques? Share the love and sound off in the comments! Either that or share your own thoughts on what you think of the techniques I share here. Regardless, tips tricks and techniques like these are always designed to help you get through post production and do what we all love to do – get out and shoot some more! Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here next time!

Today though, I thought I’d share a little-known (or at least not-often-discussed) tip about the Canon EOS camera line.  Did you know that there is a silent shooting mode?  To enable this mode of shooting, simply switch your camera to the live shooting mode (where you compose your image using the LCD instead of the viewfinder), and when pressing the shutter, it’s much quieter than when normally pressed!  I knew about this, but honestly had not used it in quite a while.  It’s one of those “Oh yeah…..!” moments and when reviewing some material, I came across this from the owner’s manual.  Here’s the page directly from the 40D guide:

This is a very handy feature to have if you don’t want to interrupt an emotional moment during an event (say a bride and groom kissing, a baby sleeping, or some other such occasion).Got your own unknown or not-often-mentioned feature to share about your own gear?  Sound off in the comments!  Have a great weekend all and we’ll see you back here next week!

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1.  Slow down! – Your shutter speed is the best way to blur water…taking things down to at least 1/4 of a second, if not longer.

2.  Steady as she goes – Use your tripod!  When shooting at slower shutter speeds, it helps immensely to be solidly mounted on a good set of legs.  Without getting into the pros and cons of various features and qualities of various tripods, if you are shooting a 10 second exposure of a beach at sunrise, you need legs!

3.  Control the light – What a lot of people run into when slowing their shutter is an invariably brighter exposure…to combat extra ambient light in the scene use ND filters to prevent those extra rays of light from hitting your sensor.  Polarizers can work too, but they are less effective as they can have some downsides to them including elimination of reflections, casting a specific tone on your entire image, and more.  When in doubt, always use ND filters.

As always, there’s more than one way to skin a can (or blur water)!  More involve shutter dragging with fill flash, and lots of others.  What ways do you use to blur and control waters’ appearance in your images?  Sound off in the comments with tips and tricks of your own! Happy shooting all, and we’ll see you back here again next time with more photo goodness!

Did You Know…?

1.  Fog is about 1 stop brighter than what cameras detect as 18% gray?  To compensate for shots taken in foggy conditions, adjust your exposure settings up by about 1/2 – 1 1/2 stops to compensate, otherwise you’ll get underexposed shots.

2.  Cameras are designed for right-handed people…the ergonomics are made to grip and adjust controls with your right hand.  Left-handed shooters have it twice as hard as the rest of us so double kudos to you!

3.  Pentax was actually the first camera vendor slated to release a full-frame DSLR camera, not Canon or Nikon!

4.  As you move light away from your subject, the output drops off by a factor of almost 2 to 1?  (It’s actually technically “double the distance, 3/4ths the output…)  Which means if you move your subject away, you need twice as much light at double the distance to equal the same output…

5.   To shoot a picture of the moon, use the Moony 11 Rule, just like the Sunny 16, but use f/11 and match the ISO to shutter speed

And since I was in Tucson this past weekend, here’s a couple holiday photos to tickle your funny bone…Christmas Tucson-Style:

Santa Turtle

Cactus Cap

Got your own DYK tips or photo nuggets?  Share ‘em here on the blog.  I’ll likely start doing this as a monthly feature and would love to hear the ideas, tips and tricks that others have to share as well.  In the meantime, keep on shooting, and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!

1. Keep your shutter speed around 3-7 seconds.  Much longer than 7 seconds and the lights will start getting blown out, losing detail.  Much shorter than 3 seconds and your lights won’t have enough detail.
2. Shoot at twilight (or early morning if the lights are still on).  This avoids the problem of needing longer exposures in darker night shots, which can cause #1.  Also, the dark blues in twilight can add some real nice depth and appeal that would otherwise be lacking in darker sky photos.  If you time it right and get clear enough skies, you can also get stars in your images!
3. It should go without saying, but use a tripod – these long exposures are impossible without it.  To this end though, if you don’t have your tripod wrapped in foam, now is the time to do it.  Colder temps can make it downright painful to touch.
4. Don’t try to capture too much – you have a limited window of twilight, so once that’s gone, just enjoy the rest of the evening – most of your shots after twilight won’t be “keepers”
5. Try shooting low to get a different angle, or from above looking down – to get a better “aerial” approach.
6. For the starburst effect without the star filter, drop your aperture down to f16 or smaller – lights will start to exhibit the starburst effect at these smaller apertures.

There’s my 5 tips – but there’s always more where that came from.  What about the rest of the audience?  What tips, tricks, and advice do you have for shooting the holiday lights?  Share ‘em in the comments!  Here’s my sample (there’s more also up on my Flickr photo stream).  Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!

Christmas Lights at Chatfield 1

Christmas Lights at Chatfield 2

Christmas Lights at Chatfield 3

Christmas Lights at Chatfield 4

Christmas Lights at Chatfield 5

Christmas Lights at Chatfield 6

Editor Note:  These were taken at Chatfield, part of the Denver Botanical Gardens, which are decorated every year.  A nice change of pace from shooting the downtown Denver area, and tickets go for $9.50 (adults) and $6.50 (kids).  With lots of lights and diversions for kids including hot chocolate, hay rides and more, it’s definitely worth the price of admission.  Maps, schedules, and additional information are available here.

1.  The first school of thought is that we should adhere to the accuracy of what it is the sensor is capturing.  By allowing for interpretation and manipulation of the pixels, photography is no longer the means of reporting things – life, as we know it!

2.  The other school of thought is that pixels and cameras are simply a means of capturing a limited portion of the world around them, and that even the human eye is capturing more in a single instant than any single still image could ever hope to capture.  With that in mind, it is the job of the photographer to bring to life what it is they see, and use the tools available to them to bring that image to life, whether it means performing HDR, sharpening, white balance corrections, or anything!

Now, keep in mind that there are always exceptions to the above two schools of thought.  Journalism for instance, requires accuracy and not making adjustments as it really is meant as a reporting mechanism not an interpretation or individual perception of what is scene.  While I am not sure where my own line of thinking really ends up on this very polarizing issue, it does seem that perhaps there is a time and place for it.  Again, with all subjective work, there is a certain degree of personal preference and bias – and this also speaks to the second point, because some HDR can be really really good, while others can be really really bad.  Nevertheless, for my two cents, it does seem that occasionally, there is both a time and a place for HDR.  During such times,  I’ve tried a variety of approaches to utilize HDR while also keeping some measure of reality in my photos.  Take for example, the three images below taken at different shutter speeds, while keeping ISO and aperture constant – thus creating several different exposures of the same scene:

HDR base Images

By combining and basically “stacking” each of these images inside our post production work flow, we can bring out the details in the shadows from the first image (down in the golf course area), bring out the details from the highlights (the clouds), while maintaining the clarity of the neutrally lit areas in the middle of the photos (the rocks and pool).  While there are several ways to do this, including Photomatix, HDR Pro (the one native to CS5) and several other Photoshop and Lightroom plugins like what Topaz Labs, Lucis, and OnOne’s plugin Suite), here I am using the HDR Pro function inside of Photoshop CS5.

HDR Pro Sample

I did choose the option inside the HDR Pro menu to select a more saturated image than what was originally created in camera, and it is more reminiscient of what I actually saw.  So, am I cheating at what I created?  Is this a “real” photo?  What if I were to take another approach, and simply make some adjustments on a single image?  Back to the digital work flow I go…and here is a single shot edited in Lightroom:

Lightroom HDR

Now, while there are clearly some slight differences in tonal range, saturation, and such, there are two things to keep in mind:  1 – I was making these edits pretty quick, and 2 – this is the Internet, which makes color accuracy a difficult thing to achieve.  It does serve to illustrate that you don’t necessarily have to stack images in Photoshop to achieve the HDR look.  Simple slider adjustments in Lightroom can approximate the same thing.  As mentioned above, there are also a number of third-party plugins and add-ons that can bring this effect to life.  Regardless of what the consensus is, HDR is likely a technique that is here to stay, and it’s simply a matter of experimenting and finding a technique that works for you, and that your clients, or colleagues, or friends and family, will find appealing.

This is, of course, just my personal take on HDR.  What about the rest of the readership?  Any thoughts on the legitimacy or validity of HDR?  Does it work?  Can it work?  Or should we stick to trying to capture it all in-camera – on a single frame?  Sound off in the comments or via email!  Thanks for sharing your own thoughts, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow!

ETA:  Don’t forget – a couple contests are going on through November and the rest of the year:

1.  Monthly LDP Giveaway – Share your own “POP” themed photos for a chance to win a pack of pearl metallic paper from the folks at Red River – this paper is awesome for HDR-styles of work!

2.  The Nations Photo Lab Family Photo Day – Upload your images to their Flickr Page for a chance to win a pretty impressive set of prizes including autographed books, free printing certificates, and much more!

#1 – Understand the data

I was out two weeks ago with this money (probably burning a hole in my pocket, and came across an HP monitor in none other than Best Buy.  The price was right ($249), as were the dimensions (23″).  I was looking at some of the other monitors, and none really filled the bill like this one did.  The only downside was that there was no USB port (or so I thought).  The salesman also pointed out the contrast ratio of 40,000:1!  Without thinking about it to much, I figured it certainly wouldn’t be a bad monitor – so why not give it a whirl!  After all, a 30 day return policy to the brick-and-mortar worked in my favor.  So, home it came for setup.  A few landmines awaited:

Size – While the dimensions of the monitor are always important, another consideration to take into account is the elevation or lift you get.  My old faithful Dell had a telescoping arm that elevated it nicely over my Drobo, and kept it right at eye level for me (or very near it to prevent me from hunching over too much and becoming Lurch!.  The HP 2310m had no such benefit and I then found myself shopping around for monitor stands.  Subtract another $40 for a decent quality stand (Allsop).

USB Ports – I neglected to consider that the HP had no USB ports.  I previously had 3 things coming off the old monitor – a printer, my mouse, and a dangler I could connect my card reader to easily.  So, some rewiring was in order.  But, this helped me clean up some cable management issues, so that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Contrast Ratio – If you take away nothing else from this post, consider this:  contrast ratios are meaningless!  That’s right, they are meaningless numbers, generated by each vendor to measure their own “belief” of what the expected performance could be of the monitor under the most extreme settings.   I got a hard knock here, recalling after some collaboration with the crew over in the NAPP forums (thanks to Andrew Rodney for the reminder).  As it turns out, pretty much anything past 1000:1 is meaningless under a calibrated workspace, because monitors just aren’t made to produce a useful contrast past this once calibrated.  Some of the really price ones from LaCie and Eizo do, but those are in the thousands of dollars range.  So, keeping true to my budget, I had to settle for consumer grade gear.  But, I wish I would have known that before buying, because the decision was made in haste and on bad information.  So, lesson learned – know the important data!  Contrast Ratio = 1000:1 or greater is fine!

#2 – Don’t Be Afraid to Settle

After finding out all these little caveats, I also got an email blast from Newegg, touting their Halloween deals, and of course, a monitor came up in the laundry list.  An ASUS 25″ for $230!  I was floored.  Two more inches of real estate, for $30 less!  So, I started digging into the reviews, forums, and consumer reports.  I’d purchased a few of their motherboards over the years and was happy with those.  A trip back to the NAPP forums did alert me to a few misgivings some had about the brand though, so I decided against returning the HP in exchange for the ASUS.  After all, it was only $30 difference in price, and would have possibly got me in a situation where I may not have been able to return the ASUS without getting an ugly restocking fee.  And besides, the low profile and lack of USB were also present there, so there wasn’t much to gain.  Then I saw the LG.

It was on display at Sam’s Club, and I’d seen these things in use in lots of retail settings, including warehouse environments, retail, and even doctor offices.  The seemed to be of  decent enough quality, although the contrast was  always way over cranked.  I could fix that with a calibration though, so checked the price:  $189!  A savings of $60 (figure in tax).  That would negate the $40 spent on the monitor stand and give me a little change back in the wallet.  Off to the web I went for more research.  Turns out this isn’t that bad a monitor.  I decided to go for the savings and returned the HP, bringing the LG home.  Now, all that was left was to set it up, and I was off to the races!

#3 – Calibrate it!

Last but not least, I set the LG up to calibrate.  After twenty minutes trying to dial in the color, contrast, and brightness, I was beginning to understand the differences between vendor makes and accuracy.  I’d heard of monitors that just wouldn’t calibrate and was suspecting that this was the case for the LG.  (The luminance was just way to low, and the colors would never fully align to center in my Gretag Macbeth colorimeter.  I finally gave up, and went to take the colorimeter off.  On doing so, I noticed that the ambient light filter was still on the puck that I had used to measure ambient light.  That explained it!  Sans filter, I placed the colorimeter back on the monitor, and within 5 minutes, had things dialed in pretty close to perfect.  My luminance is 0.5 off, the color is at 6500, and contrast is spot on dead center.  It’s got 30 days to satisfy me (and assuming nothing else goes on sale…)  So, word to the wise – when calibrating your monitor, remove the ambient light filter – it can save a lot of headache!

I’ve now moved the 19″ into the secondary position, the 23″ has become the primary, and the added benefit of the monitor stand has given me two new rows of surface area to store things like my thumb drives, media cards, businesss cards, and other bric-a-brac.  More storage in an increasingly cluttered life is a good thing!

So, watch that contrast, check to calibrate, and exercise caution in spending habits – especially if you can’t return things easily.

Thew New LG Monitor

Now it’s your turn – got any purchasing stories or tales to share where you learned something in the experience?  Sound off in the comments, let me know your thoughts on the above, or to share your own “war stories”.  Thanks for stopping in and we’ll be back tomorrow with more photo goodness.

P.S.  Another heads up reminder, that the November Newsletter will be coming out this Friday, so if you’ve not signed up – make sure you pick up a subscription for it either in the sidebar or here.  It’s free, and only available to subscribers!

The TEN stop filter project

A common problem with shooting landscape photos is that we are limited by the hours of available shoot times.  We all know that the best times to shoot are morning and evening for the best light.  The overhead light in the middle of the day just does not allow you to drop your shutter speeds much to get flowing water, or a sense of motion in clouds without assistance.  Another possible use could be a kissing engagement couple with some blurred motion behind them (like a train, the clouds, or whatever – suggesting a really long kiss!)

The only way to address that is through stacking MANY neutral density filters (ND).  They are made in various stops (defined by the stops of light they block), and stacking can get pretty costly.  There are some though that you can get that address multiple stops of light in one filter, like the Lee 10-stop filter.  Problem?  Cost!  (It’s $160 at B&H).  I learned a while ago about a way to make one yourself for as little as $20.00 though.  Here’s the process I used (let me also apologize for the image quality – some of these were taken with the Droid in low light and studio level shots wasn’t where my attention was…but you can hopefully get the gist from these):

Step One – Find a cheap filter at your local camera store.  These can be found for a dollar or so.  The one I used was found at a camera store for 50 cents.  A Hoya 85B orange filter (77mm).

Step Two – Place it on a paper towel, and wrap a second one over the top (this is for your protection and easier cleanup)

Step Three – Get your favorite hammer out…

Step Four – Do not just go to town….whacking away crazily is not needed.  Just a couple firm taps until you hear the glass give way…

Step Five – Once the glass is broken, a few strategic taps around the edges should pop most of the glass out of the filter ring:

Step Six – Wrap up paper towels of broken glass and discard.  Then check the filter ring and make sure it  is free of any glass shards (I used canned air)…

Step Seven – Buy a welder’s replacement lens from your local hardware/tool store, or perhaps a local welder shop.  If you prefer, there are online retailers that sell this stuff too.  The problem there is that the cost of shipping quickly ratchets up the price.  I found some Hobart #9 at a local store for under $2.50 per pack and some Lincoln Electric #10 at Lowe’s for $5 a piece.

Steps 8a – I tried first to mark a circle with tape and use a Dremel with a regular cutting wheel to slowly cut to the ring dimension.  It resulted in a pretty bad crack through the center of the glass, rendering it unusable, so I had to start over.

Step 8b – I tried a second piece of glass with a scoring hand tool.  Since the welding glass is about 1/4” thick, it takes several score to make it weak enough at this breakage point to snip off cleanly.  My efforts did not result in clean snips, and ultimately, the glass cracked from my impatience (so, add patience to the list of materials needed!).

Step 8c- I went to purchase a 3rd piece of the cheap stuff.  This time, I called around and found a place willing to try to cut the glass (everyone will ask and believe the glass is tempered, when in my case – neither was).  I took a sheet of the cheap stuff into them and explained what I was trying to do, then asked what size they could cut to.  They had a 2 1/2” hole saw and a 3” whole saw with diamond tips for glass cutting.  We did the calculations and realized that 77mm is almost 3 inches exactly.  He warned me that the saw itself would take a portion out.  Thinking there was a lip on the interior of the filter, I said go ahead (after all, it’s only $2.50 here right? )

He was able to cut it into a nice circle.  I knew it would be close so thanked him and asked how much I owed.  He smiled and said “No charge – give me a plug or a print if it works out!”.  Since I am happy to either way, the name of the place is CNC Glassworks in Arvada CO! Super nice folks and great attitude toward customer service!  I am sad to admit though that the hole he cut out was just a shade too small.  I may possibly attempt to sand this down to the next filter size in my gear bag  glass and on testing, but it did prove to be too small.

Step 9 – I now knew that I needed to either find a diamond-tipped hole saw and cut it myself, or find someone that had a 3 1/2” hole saw that would be willing to use it on my glass.  A little bit of Google research showed that Bosh makes a Diamond Hole Saw in the 3 1/8” size.  Problem?  None, if you want to pay $60 or more for the tool itself  (the cheapest I found was around $60 at Ohio Power Tool, and locally through a company called Tool King for $70).  Even if it was half this price, the DIY cost saving approach is quickly ratcheting up.  So, a little more in-depth research was required.

Step 10 – Sure enough, after I did some more research via telephone and email, I found a manufacturer  online (THK Diamond Tools) that sold the equipment.  I was able to purchase the diamond coated hole saw bit for $10 (+ $10 shipping).  Since I don’t own a table drill, a quick trip back to CNC Glassworks with a 4th piece of the cheap stuff resulted in in a good cut.  I have a piece of the good welder’s glass (the #10 Hobart one for $5 at Lowe’s), but wanted to test the results first.  The end result of the cut now fit perfectly into the filter ring!

Step 11 – Now, I just took a little clear silicon glue applied to the inner circle of the filter ring and snugged the new “filter” into place.  After letting it dry for about a day, it is now ready to shoot!  (Unfortunately, my tripod is still pending repairs, so the final results will have to wait a while longer – but the project is officially complete!

Supplies/Tools Used:

• Filter Ring ($1-$10 depending on where you get them)
• Welder’s Replacement Glass (ranges in price from $2.50 – $5 depending on market – ymmv)
• Paper Towels (50 cents)
• Hammer (??? had this forever)
• Safety Glasses (required for any DIYer – but $3 from Lowes if you dont own a pair)
• Safety gloves (again, required for any DIYer – but $3-$5 from Lowes if you dont own a pair)
• Glass Cutter ($3)
• *Dremel with cutting bit (ETA – if you have the time and $, get the diamond cutting bit – you may have more success than I did… and sanding bit)
• Strong glue (to hold glass in filter ring after completion – $5)
• Masking tape ($2)
• *If you want to go the more “professional route” and have a table drill, or know someone who does, the cost for the$20 for the diamond tipped 3″ bit from THK is $20.)

*You don’t need both of these, but you should have either one or the other.

Project Time Frame – 1-4 hours total work time, 2-4 days total project time.

So, in totaling all the costs of the project, I probably invested $40.  This did involve multiple test cuts which you can avoid though, and if your area has a glass cutting shop with a 3″ diamond tipped bit, then another $20 can be saved.  This could drop your cost to less than $20 if you only need one cut and already have the materials.  Either way, considering the cost of a Lee 10 stop $160 filter, I’ve saved $120 in my project by going the DIY Route!!

Keep in mind that these filters will leave a green tint, so you’ll have to do a little bit of post processing, but if I spend ten minutes in post, that’s worth the savings to me – especially since this is an extremely unusual type of use piece of glass, and hard to justify that kind of expense.  Give it a whirl and share your own shots in the LDP Flickr pool!  Happy shooting and we’ll see you here again tomorrow!

So, for starters – I’d suggest that you educate yourself on how to shoot stock, which means reading resources like Rob’s book.  You also need to practice, and be aware of trends in the market place.  You also need to be prepared for something else, and that is rejection! Even the best photographers have images rejected from iStock.  It’s going to happen, so get used to it.  Images can be rejected for any one of a number of reasons.  By far, one of the most common ones I’ve seen is worded as follows:

“This image appears to be over-filtered/over-processed which has affected the image quality. This may include Photoshop filters & effects (over-sharpening, excessive adjustments to levels, curves, contrast, hues, gaussian blurs, saturation, added textures, noise reduction…) or other manipulations.”

What can be frustrating about this is that you may have applied very minimal processing, and applied no filters whatsoever, but your images are still rejected.  The reason?  The next part of the rejection description:

“Inspectors judge images based on quality, composition and usability.”

The key is not to worry if this happens – it can happen to anyone, and images can be rejected for any of many reasons.  Here’s a couple examples of photos I’ve had rejected from iStock during this test phase:

Blue Water Slide

Prescriptions

Beach Therapy

One thing I’ve always tried to do when assembling work for stock is to make sure there is negative space available.  This allows buyers to have their text or content overlay on the image.  Plus, it’s a pretty effective compositional technique – which I’ve talked about in the past…for more details, you can read that full article here.

Here are some other suggestions and approaches for shooting stock:

1. Try and avoid brand names.  If someone is wearing Nike shoes, a Champion sweatshirt, or other easily recognizable logos, forget it.  First off, you can’t use them without permission, second, the clean-up work required in post degrades the image quality, and third, it’s just not worth the time to remove when you consider that stock is not just about the quality of photos, but to make any decent revenue, it’s also about quantity of photos!
2. Incorporate people into your work.  This doesn’t mean having someone put on a headset and pretend to be a customer service rep (because this has been done too much already).  It does mean to be creative and use people to demonstrate things – like lifting weights, or singing into a microphone, or repairing a computer.  These are the types that typically will do well in sales.
3. Plan ahead.  If you are thinking of shooting your Halloween themed photos now and getting them online for sales possibilities, then expect the purchases to start happening around August or September of next year.  Buyers of stock work usually are working ahead of schedule to line up ad campaigns, and other uses well in advance, so you need to be publishing your work on their schedule, not in real time.
4. Make sure you get model releases if people are recognizable in the images.  Stock work requires it, and if you don’t have it – then forget even submitting.  For more details on what model releases are appropriate and what should be included, visit this location where iStock gives you one to use!

That’s just a couple tips for how to get started in stock photography.  For more information, go to the pros that already do it, and know the industry much better than I.  As mentioned at the beginning - Rob Sylvan is a great resource as an iStock reviewer and author.  Other people you may want to keep tabs on include Nicolesy (who I’ve talked to here on the podcast series!).

Got your own tips and ideas on how to shoot stock?  I’d love to hear what others think too, so sound off in the comments.  Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!

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 as best we can in camera – advancements in tools of the trade simply give us more options and we would be foolish not to use them.

Here’s a good example of a shot that was done at a high in-camera ISO setting, that was recoverable to a good quality image.  It may not necessarily be of “stock photography” caliber (you really need every pixel to be perfect for stock photography), but for event photography, I would consider this acceptable quality.

2.  Implementing additional light sources (Flash, video lights, etc.)

3.  Using a tripod/monopod in conjunction with longer exposures to increase odds of sharp captures

4.  Use a gray card to get good white balance/off-set the ambient lighting conditions.

Having your subject hold a color balance card (or even just a gray card) in the scene for one shot is a great way to counter-act the effect of difficult lighting, including everything from halogen lights, to fluorescent, tungsten-florescent mixes, and the garish hue from sodium vapor lights common in locales like stadiums and street light settings.

Gretag Macbeth Color Wheel

Sample Graycard Shot

5.  Use supports from the surroundings to brace your camera

Using a tree, a wall, or even the ground to help stabilize your camera can reduce the shutter speed considerably to help when shooting in low light situations.

As much as we may try to hand hold our cameras, blur is unavoidable due to our heartbeats, finger tremors, breathing, and a host of biological factors, the best we can do is help to minimize that blur by using supporting mechanisms and techniques to get as stable a shot as we can.  Even when we can hand-hold, matching that color from the scene is much easier to do when you start from a known vantage point, whether it be your own flash, or a controlled ambient scene.  So much to think about and so little time…where do you want to go from here?

Hint:  Sound off in the comments – would love to hear others thoughts, tips, and tricks for dealing with low and/or harsh lighting! Special thanks to Kerry Garrison of Kerry Garrison Photography for sharing a sample image from his own portfolio when I couldn’t track my own down in the library (bad me for not keywording fully!)…

With that in mind, I’m bringing back a popular concept of “Top Tips”.  Today, I give you…(drum roll please):

“Five Tips to Better Photos”

1. Be Ware of Exposure Values – No matter how good your camera is, if you under or over expose too much, you’ll be losing detail which either takes too long to recover in post production or is unrecoverable.  Check your histogram for “blinkies” (meaning stay away from the edges), and you’re in a much better zone to start!
2. In keeping with watching exposure values, don’t rely on new-fangled features lie “content aware fill” or “clone tools” to fix things afterward.  If it takes ten more seconds to get it right in camera, do it, because it means you are still shooting and not stuck behind a monitor at 2am fixing stuff for tomorrow’s delivery deadline!
3. Avoid increasing Noise.  It’s like a broken record at this point, but would you rather keep noise down in camera or address it because you were shooting at ISO 64000 in camera?  Yeah, the reduction features are amazing, but it’s even better if you don’t even have to touch that slider.  Swap lenses, check settings, and heck, maybe even add a fill flash.  It helps to keep noise down, which ultimately means your shots are cleaner.
4. Look for the Light – the direction of the light, the intensity of light, and the shape of the light all can impact your photos.  As a general rule, keep the light to your side and behind you, and try to keep the intensity down as you don’t want to over-expose your subject (see Tip #1).  Don’t forget, you can shape and modify even ambient light with diffusers, reflectors,  and umbrellas.  It’s all part of the larger principle that photography is about “writing with light”.
5. Shy away from shadows – Just as the quality of light can make or break a photo, so too can shadows.  Watch for overhead lights as this can have nasty effects on things like portraiture (shadows under eyes).  Coming at your subject from the wrong angle can also lead to nasty and unwanted shadows of yourself in the picture.  For instance, if you are shooting a building at sunset with the sun directly behind you, your own shadow can creep into the scene, making for some not-so-fun post production work in Photoshop.

There you have it – 5 easy tips to better photos!  Lightroom?  We don’t need no stinkin’ Lightroom!  (Well, we do, but it made for a good quote! )

What sorts of tips have you come up with to make and take better photos in camera?  Share your own in the comments!  Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!

P.S.  Remember, there are two contests going on right now – if you stop over to the podcast day (Monday) where I talked with Rob Sylvan and share a comment you are entered to win a free copy of his upcoming “Taking Stock” book – courtesy of Peachpit Press.  Also, the monthly giveaway for 2 4GB Lexar Pro 300x CF cards is rolling and you can submit your photos to the Flickr thread here!  Enjoy and good luck to all!

1.  Download the script from the link above (I downloaded to my desktop on Windows XP)

2.  Copy the script from your desktop (or whatever download location you configured for your browser) to your Photoshop folder, as indicated in the screen shot.

3.  Open Photoshop (if it was already open, you should probably close PS and restart it)

4.  Open the picture you want to apply the script to (I started with the largest size desktop I wanted to configure it for, in this case 1600 x 1200.

5.  Navigate to the Presets option in Photoshop and open the script

6.  The interface lets you select certain information such as the month it will run for, when the week starts, etc.

7.  Special mention here to include certain holidays – if you have custom days (say birthdays, anniversaries, etc) to add, create a text file for reference and point the script to that txt file location.  If you don’t want certain days highlighted,you can leave this option un-checked and proceed with the script.

8.  It may take the script some time to run (it took me about 58-61 seconds to run it on my computer, but I was multitasking with other things at the time…).  When it’d done, you’ll get a stack of a lot of layers that looks like this, with the default layer selected of “Picture Mask”.  Note:  I’d also recommend checking the option to rasterize most text layers otherwise you’ll have up to 30 additional layers of text (one for each day of the month)! The layers underneath this are where all the really cool stuff is, and the other layers are dates and effects that you can change to suit your own tastes.

9.  Once you have tailored the layers to suit your needs, simply flatten, save as a jpg and configure your desktop to use that image!  Since I typically will save to multiple desktop dimensions, I start with the original and re-size to each output, from largest to smallest saving each as a jpg then letting the script use that to create the desktop calendar.

There you have it!  The nitty gritty details on how to create a really slick looking desktop calendar for you and your clients.  Simply print as pictures through your favorite venue if you like and watch the sales come in!

One final little news note that is time sensitive – DIY Photography has a very creative approach to contests and the prize package is worthy of a nod (don’t know how he/she/they managed to come up with this big bag of goodies!), so stop over here and throw your hats in the ring:  http://bit.ly/aRQa9l

See you back here tomorrow for the latest in photo goodness!  I’ll also bring up a couple tips on how to tweak the layers to your own ends, but feel free to begin exploring your own creative approaches!

In other news, Erik Bernskiold and I got together again to do another episode of the Learning Digital Photography podcast.  Episode #40 was the one that came down the tube, and this one has an extra special feature – we recorded it live on Ustream!  Erik took the controls there and monitored the chat and questions while I recorded the copy for iTunes.  If you missed the live show, that recorded copy will be available for another couple days.  The more portable one for the iTunes folks can be gotten from the feed here (thanks to the folks at PLM).  Since we covered a lot in the shot, I’ll leave the rest of todays’ blog post for the show notes.  Enjoy!

Learning Digital Photography, Episode #40

News Items:

• PMA:
• WPPI:  March 4-11
• PSW: March 24-26
• Gulf Photo Plus: March 1-4

How to pack when traveling:

1.  What to take, what to leave behind?

• To conferences
• To workshops
• To vacation spots

2.  Security concerns?

• What are you allowed to take?
• What should you leave behind?
• Safety/security levels

3.  Scouting from a distance?

• Google Earth
• Online mapping
• GPS devices

Listener Questions:

1.  What is parallax?  (Chris) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallax
2.  What’s the best way to deal with noise in your pictures? Matt

In Camera Methods

• Noise Ninja
• Neat Image
• OnOne

1. Shoot During the Golden Hours – The reason these hours are called “the golden hours” are twofold:  first, because the quality of light from the  lower angle of the sun is more yellowish and natural looking (or golden), and is more flattering than the harsher light of the hours in between.  Second, because the shots you produce from these windows translates into sales on a much more regular basis than other photos.  While you may not be interested in selling your work – images are far more appreciated when captured during this special time.  In general, the best hours are the ones just prior to sunrise and just after sunset.  With the sun below the horizon, but still casting its light above, the harshness is gone and everything is bathed in golden hues.  Plan your shoots accordingly!  Whenever you notice these lighting conditions, make note of your surroundings – you may see something in a new light – literally!
2. Scout Your Locations – It’s one thing to know when to shoot, but it’s another thing entirely to know where to shoot.  One of my favorite images from my own portfolio came from a venture I took with a fellow photographer in South Carolina that had been studying the movement of the sun for over a year in a certain area.  At the time of year that we went to this place, he knew the sun would be positioned ideally in the sky, the colors it cast would offer the most potential for just amazing results, and the type of skies and weather would be perfectly suited.  He knew this almost down to a science.  When he invited me and said “I’ve never seen conditions better than this”, given his research to date, I knew it was a rare opportunity to get some great shots from the scouting that he had done… I had to jump at the opportunity!
3. Minimize your gear.  Landscapes are all about catching the perspective of a wider area, and the best way to catch a wider area is with a wider lens.  You simply don’t need that 100mm macro, or the 70-200mm zoom.  Take your widest lens and your best body.  For me that’s the 10-22mm and my trusty 40D.  I also don’t take any extra flashes or light stands, umbrellas or snoots either.  My camera with lens on a Rapid-R strap, a spare battery in one pocket and spare memory cards in another, and I just happily shoot away!
4. Shoot in Portrait Mode – I know this sounds crazy, but landscapes usually are not just about the foreground or the background – there are elements of both that you would like to have.  Even when you shoot a wide angle lens in landscape mode (horizontal), it’s best to span the area with multiple images and then stitch together the resulting ones afterward in your favorite editor.  If you are going to stitch together afterward anyway, catch more of that sky and more foreground detail by rotating the camera 90 degrees.
5. Center the Horizon – Conventional wisdom in composition says to put your horizon on one of the Rule of Thirds lines.  While this is true as a general rule, when capturing a landscape image, especially when stitching multiple photos together, it is better to put the horizon in the center for a number of reasons.  First off, there will be less distortion of the scene where it matters most in post production.  When your software stitches things together afterward, it tries to match elements and overlay them.  If your horizon is off center (and this is even more true the wider the lens), there will always be some distortion due to the physics of how lenses work.  Minimize this distortion by centering that horizon.  You can crop it appropriately during the post production phase if needed, and the stitching will go a lot easier!

Since people tend to get a better idea of these types of principles by seeing examples too, here’s a few shots that utilize some of these techniques.

Can you guess which ones used which tips?  Got any tips of your own to add?  Sound off in the comments!   As always, happy shooting, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow – for the last day of the week, and the last day to submit your images for the January Giveaway!  See you then…

To help shed some light on the subject (get it? ), we talked to Becky Thomas (aka BecThomasPhoto on Twitter) on the show.  A great conversation, and lots was covered so be sure you give it a listen.  Thanks to Bec for her time – it was a lot of fun.  Make sure you stop over to her site as well for a great dose of inspiration.

Photo News

• Panasonic Sound System NW-10
• Facebook Automated Photo Tagging (Face Detection)
• Price Cuts on Photo Storage from Google ($4096 for 16 TB)

Photo Technical Tips

• Pros and cons of increasing ISO
• Pros and cons of opening your aperture
• Pros and cons of slowing the shutter

Listener Questions and Answers

• Camera Prices/Lines – What camera should you get?
• Difference between a Lightroom catalog versus photo backups
• Which stock agency to use?

It’s the age-old question, and if I had all the answers, well, I’d be filthy rich!  The reason this is the case is because what is compelling or inspiring for one person will be different for another, and yet another, and even a fourth or fifth person.  The truth of the matter is that there is no magical silver bullet of what to do to create compelling images…but there are some things that we, as photographers, can rely on as starting points in our search for compelling captures.  Here’s 5 compelling capture tips that I’ve come up with:

1. Color – striking colors are always noticeable.  We see the world in shades, tones and nuances of color, so seek out those types of images where color is powerful.  D0 this, and your chances of creating compelling captures increases exponentially!
2. Light – Surprise surprise!  I’ve talked about light before, and it’s influence in photography (it’s all about light in photography, even the word itself translates partially as light).  Find powerfully lit scenes and you’ve found a compelling moment.
3. Emotion – Photo journalism relies on this more than any other genre, but if you want to tell a story with your images, one way to do so is to evoke a sense of emotional connection.  Bringing out the emotion in the viewer by presenting scenes that are filled with emotionally charged elements – whether it’s a controversial image of a war zone, or the passion of a mother and her unborn child, these types of scenes stay wit us for a reason, because of the emotion tied to it.
4. Action – In the words of Joe McNally, “action trumps everything.”  Action shots also connect with the viewer because it speaks to a particular moment in time more than anything else.  That moment a soccer player connects their foot wit a ball, or the moment a bullet shatters a wine glass – it’s something that sparks interest in the viewer, and cannot be ignored as a source of compelling interest.
5. Eyes – Spoken from the rulebook of a true portraitist, when you have the faces of people or animals in an image – make sure you can see their eyes.  Remember, like the old saying goes, “The eyes are the windows to the soul”, and if you want viewers to connect with an image, one of the most compelling ways to connect with a portrait is to give a hint of what’s inside, and that is almost always done through the eyes of the subject.

So, there you have it – 5 ways to create compelling images.  These are, of course, adages, and there will be exceptions to these rules at times, but as a general rule of thumb, these tips can help you create compelling captures.  There’s also more to it than these 5 ideas, because you know that no single person can completely encompass the ideas behind what creates compelling captures.  So, I would invite you to share your own ideas for what you look to in creating those decisive moments?  Is it something here?  Is there something else you look to for inspiration or to capture something compelling?  What captures your interest when you look at pictures?  Sound off in the comments!

Don’t forget, the November contest has started and a literal bundle of prizes is at stake for some lucky participant so get your creative caps on and throw an image (or two or three) in the Flickr thread.  If you don’t play, you can’t win!  Until tomorrow then, keep on shooting those compelling images.  Thanks for stopping in and we’ll see you then!

• First up, the finalists of the $500 giveaway have been determined.  These six finalists are being considered to win a pretty impressive package of stuff including a Thinktank Photo Multimedia Bag System and a complete set of the Topaz Labs Photoshop Bundle.  View the finalists gallery here.

• Next up, a recommendation:  Even if you aren’t a subscriber to the Rangefinder Magazine (although you should be), you can read the current issue online here, (it’s a PDF download) which includes in the most recent issue an interview of none other than David Hobby, founder and author of the world-famous Strobist blog.

• From Scott over at one of my favorite daily reads (Weekly Photo TIps), there is a new PBS series starting this week on National Parks.  I am definitely setting the DVR for this series!

• As a longtime fan of DIY-projects, this one on making a tripod for your P&S (or iPhone) out of a paperclip was just too cool to leave out of the list.

• And finally, for those that just insist on getting a photo fix regularly, visit former contest winner John Dunne’s blog, My Chi to see a great dilemma as he is torn between a color and a black and white version of a sunrise scene on the Promenade (psst….I like the black and white version!)…

Well, that’s it for today, be sure to stop back tomorrow for another dose of inspiration as we hit the midway point of the week (a.k.a. hump day)!  Happy shooting and we’ll see you then…

I hear a lot of chatter out there about how many photographers are in the market, and how soccer moms with a camera are taking your clients. Are you sure they are taking your clients, or are you losing them because you are not trying to be the best photographer you can be? (sounds like the army!) Just because Digital SLR cameras are affordable doesn’t mean everyone can be an amazing photographer.  Your job is to be the best photographer you can be, and stand out among the others.  How, you ask?  Well, start with the basics as it builds a solid foundation:

1.  Focus on the eyes…please!

I see so many portraits where the focus is on someone’s arm, knee, elbow. Until the elbow is the window into the soul let’s try focusing on the eyes (yes there are exceptions… but the elbow usually isn’t it). By learning how to control your focus on your camera you can stop your camera from focusing on the closest thing to it (like the nose not the eyes)

2.  You look like your brother Yoda

Skin tones are usually not green, or orange. Proper white balance and exposure will fix this issue most of the time. I personally use a target to calibrate my white balance card (it has black/white/18% grey on it).  If you are still catching a color reflection from a nearby object or clothing, you can fix this in post processing. Some of the ways I suggest are MCP actions or PictoColor iCorrect Portrait

3.  Reach out and touch your neighbor

We have heard it over and over and over again: get closer to your subject. Unless you are photographing a wild animal, chances are they won’t bite. If you are capturing a family, they want to see their faces, not everything around them.  Same goes for product, the client is trying to sell the product, so show it off!

4.  Target called…they want their sign back

A.K.A. bulls-eye syndrome. Your image will be more interesting if the subject is not smack dab in the middle of the image. Play with the rule of thirds (hint, the focus points in your camera are conveniently placed in one of the thirds). What is the rule of thirds, you ask? Divide the area into thirds from side to side and top to bottom.  Place the subject on an intersection of the lines at one side or the other. Go try it!

5.  Get it right in camera

There is this cute little book that came in the same box as your camera. Read it. Learn it. Live it!  Knowing how your gear works will not only help you become a better photographer, but it will also benefit you in that you will spend less time working on post-production!  The less time you spend in post, the more you can spend shooting. The more you spend shooting, the better you get…  Alternatively, you could think of this in terms of music: “Just because you can buy piano, doesn’t mean you don’t still have to learn to play it!”   A lot of what you do in Photoshop can be done in camera.  After realizing I did the same thing over and over in Photoshop, I set my user-defined picture style. The contrast is bumped up and the saturation bumped up. That is 2 less steps I have to do in post which in turn lets me spend more time in the field and actually doing what I enjoy – taking pictures!

6.  Part of being a good photographer, is being a good editor

Here, I don’t mean post processing editing, I mean what are you going to even pull into post, and then what will you show your client and the world. I was recently teaching a private lesson, and my student said “I bet you never take a bad picture”. Well she was in for a surprise when I handed over my Compact Flash card to see the images I took that day. There were bad ones on there, but she will be the only person who sees them besides me.  Show only your best, and you will look like the best photographer you can be!

Andie Smith Photography

Andie Smith Photography

Andie Smith Photography

Andie Smith Photography

Andie Smith Photography

Andie Smith Photography

Andie Smith Photography

Thanks go out to Andie Smith for delivering such an amazing and well-received first “Guest Blogger” post!  More Guest Bloggers should be forthcoming.  If you are interested in becoming a Guest Blogger, please feel free to email me at: jason <AT> canonblogger <DOT> com!