32% of dPS Readers Have a Photoblog [Poll Results]
Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips. Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips. 32% of dPS Readers Have a Photoblog [Poll Results]
Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.
Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.
32% of dPS Readers Have a Photoblog [Poll Results]
SIGNS: Weekly Photography Challenge
After our image collection of ‘Signs’ earlier today we’re going to take that same theme on this weeks photography challenge. Photograph and share an image or two on that theme.
The signs can be of anything you like. Road signs, advertising signs, protest signs. They can be of old signs, new signs, neon signs… anything you like.
Once you’ve selected the ‘Signs’ image that you’d like to share – upload it to your favourite photo sharing site or blog and either share a link to it or – embed them in the comments using the our new tool to do so.
Remember these challenges are not just about finding pictures in your archives to share – we’d really love to see you getting out your camera and taking a new photo – after all that’s what dPS is about, helping you take better shots rather than just celebrating past shots.
If you tag your photos on Flickr, Instagram, Twitter or other sites with Tagging tag them as #DPSSIGNS to help others find them. Linking back to this page might also help others know what you’re doing so that they can share in the fun.
Also – don’t forget to check out some of the great shots posted in last weeks challenge – Black and White Landscapes challenge where there were some great shots submitted.
Further Reading: Photographing Signs – Travel Photography Tip
Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.
Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.
SIGNS: Weekly Photography Challenge
How Many Lenses Do You Own? [POLL]
It is time for another reader Poll – this one comes out of a conversation yesterday with a reader who sheepishly admitted to having 13 lenses for his DSLR. In fact he had spent around $1000 on his camera body but had lenses with a combined value of over $15,000!
So I thought it might make a fun poll – how many lenses do dPS readers own?
Of course this poll is mainly focused upon the DSLR owner – although really anyone with an interchangeable lens camera can vote.
Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.
Once you’ve voted – tell us what your lenses are in comments below. It’ll be interesting to see what ones are most popular!
Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.
Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.
How Many Lenses Do You Own? [POLL]
Black and White Landscapes: Weekly Photogrpahy Challenge
Earlier today we published a collection of 27 Black and White Landscape images. So it seemed appropriate to make this weeks challenge on that theme – Black and White Landscapes.
While black and white might not necessarily always come to mind for landscapes I think it’s a great challenge to play around with. Taking colour out of the equation forces a photographer to think about other elements – their composition, texture, tone, light and shadow and more.
If you’re not able to get out into a rural area this week to take your shot – we don’t mind if your landscape is more of an urban landscape – in fact there’s great potential in some black and white cityscapes too.
Once you’ve selected the ‘Black and White Landscape’ image that you’d like to share – upload it to your favourite photo sharing site or blog and either share a link to it or – embed them in the comments using the our new tool to do so.
Remember these challenges are not just about finding pictures in your archives to share – we’d really love to see you getting out your camera and taking a new photo – after all that’s what dPS is about, helping you take better shots rather than just celebrating past shots.
If you tag your photos on Flickr, Instagram, Twitter or other sites with Tagging tag them as #DPSBWLANDSCAPE to help others find them. Linking back to this page might also help others know what you’re doing so that they can share in the fun.
Also – don’t forget to check out some of the great shots posted in last weeks challenge – Black and White Portraits challenge where there were some great shots submitted.
Further Reading on Black and White and Landscape Photography
- 11 Surefire Tips for Improving Your Landscape Photography
- Where to Focus in Landscape Photography
- 4 Rules of Composition for Landscape Photography
- 5 Black and White Photography Tips
- Key Ingredients for Black and White Images
- Tips for Black and White Photography
- What Subjects are Good for Black and White Photography
Happy Shooting!
Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.
Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.
Black and White Landscapes: Weekly Photogrpahy Challenge
Win a Library of dPS eBooks by Helping us Improve our Facebook Page
dPS Facebook page we just passed the magical 100,000 ‘likes’ mark. It’s been creeping up towards the milestone for a while now and I’ve been promising we’d do a little giveaway to celebrate when we got there. So today it is happening.
Over on the The Prize
One dPS reader will win a copy of our 9 dPS eBooks worth just under $240!
The eBooks we’ll bundle up for the winner are:
- The Essential Guide to Portrait Photography
- Photo Nuts and Bolts: Know Your Camera and Take Better Photos
- Photo Nuts and Shots: Tools and Techniques for Creative Photography
- Photo Nuts and Post: A Guide to Post Processing
- Transcending Travel: a Guide to Captivating Travel Photography
- Buy Captivating Color: a Guide to Dramatic Color Photography
- The Art of Self Portraiture
- Going Pro: How to Make Money from Your Photography
- Click! How to Take Gorgeous Photos of Your Kids
How to Enter
Entering is simple – simply visit our Facebook Page and tell us in comments below what you’d like to see us do more of on the page to make it more useful to you.
Ultimately dPS is all about helping photographers improve their photography and we want every part of the site (including our Facebook page) to be as useful to you as possible. At present we’re sharing content from here on the blog, asking questions/having discussions and letting readers submit photos (with the chance to be our featured image). But what else would you like us to do on our Facebook page.
I’ll choose an answer to win the prize on Saturday. The winner will be judged on giving us an idea that we can implement to improve the page.
There is one entry per person only and you’re welcome to enter no matter where in the world you’re located – all we’ll need to get you your prize will be for you to have internet access fast enough to download 9 eBooks!
Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.
Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.
Win a Library of dPS eBooks by Helping us Improve our Facebook Page
Black and White Portraits: Weekly Photography Challenge
This week your challenge is to take and share a black and white portrait. We’ve done portraiture challenges in the past and they’ve always been popular – but after todays collection of 27 black and white portraits I thought it might be fun to issue that challenge.
Remember with black and white images you obviously can’t rely just upon colour when creating interest in your images – think about tone, contrast, texture, patterns, light and shadow instead.
And feel free to concentrate on any kind of portraiture – whether it be posed studio list shots, casual family portraits, candid portraits, street portraits etc.
Once you’ve selected the ‘Black and White Portrait’ image that you’d like to share – upload it to your favourite photo sharing site or blog and either share a link to it or – embed them in the comments using the our new tool to do so.
Remember these challenges are not just about finding pictures in your archives to share – we’d really love to see you getting out your camera and taking a new photo – after all that’s what dPS is about, helping you take better shots rather than just celebrating past shots.
If you tag your photos on Flickr, Instagram, Twitter or other sites with Tagging tag them as #DPSBWPORTRAIT to help others find them. Linking back to this page might also help others know what you’re doing so that they can share in the fun.
Also – don’t forget to check out some of the great shots posted in last weeks challenge – ABSTRACT challenge where there were some great shots submitted.
Further Reading on Black and White Photography
- 5 Black and White Photography Tips
- Key Ingredients for Black and White Images
- Tips for Black and White Photography
- What Subjects are Good for Black and White Photography
Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.
Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.
Black and White Portraits: Weekly Photography Challenge
Have You Tried Adobe Lightroom 4 Yet? Tell Us What You Think
It has been over a week since Adobe released Lightroom 4 and I know many dPS readers have tried it out (and many tried the free beta version).
I’ve been playing around with it in the past week and have to say that I’m happy that I upgraded – the fact that it is now half the price it was is all the more attractive.
While some of the new features are not really going to fit with my needs (like the basic video editing, integrating maps/GPS data and photo book design) – some of the other features have been good.
The improved Develop mode options are particularly what I’ve appreciated – while there are a few few new options they’re intuitive and easy to get your head around and I’m finding I’m getting great results with fewer adjustments.
I also quite like the new email functionality – meaning I no longer have to export a shot to send it to a friend via email. It’s a small thing but takes another step out of my workflow for sharing shots.
But what about you? Have you tried Adobe Lightroom 4? What do you like? What don’t you like? What do you think is missing? Would you recommend it as an upgrade or outright purchase to those considering it?
Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.
Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.
Have You Tried Adobe Lightroom 4 Yet? Tell Us What You Think
What Are Burning And Dodging And How They Can Help Your Photos
When teaching modern digital photography I often forget those new to the general art of photography might not be familiar with classic terms and techniques and I need to take a step back. This post is for those who might have always wanted to ask, “What do people mean when they say ‘burn’ and ‘dodge’ in post-processing?”. If you can still smell the darkroom fumes when I bring up these terms, you can skip over this post.
Burning and dodging are two darkroom techniques used when printing a picture. A negative is placed in a projector and then pointed at a piece of photo paper (much like a slide projector projects an image on a screen). That photo paper is not like the paper you might be used to printing on at home now. It is light sensitive, just like film, and that is the whole reason for creating a darkroom; to control the amount of light hitting the paper which will expose it.
Now then, light from the projector passes through the negative and then hits the paper. The timing of the light exposure is controlled to certain tolerances just as the original exposure of the scene onto the negative was controlled. Light hits the negative evenly and then hits the paper evenly. This works well if the scene is even balanced. But what if there are areas that need to be lighter or darker? That’s where burning and dodging come in and they are simple.
The key to these terms and understanding them is to remember that the paper is white. Dodging is the process of covering over part of the light hitting the paper, creating a shadowed area that does not receive the same light exposure as the rest of the scene. Because this decreases the amount of light hitting the paper (remember; light hitting the paper = darker exposure), it lets more of the white paper show through, effectively lightening the image in that area. Burning is the opposite, it is only allowing light into one area of the image to increase the exposure time in that region and create a darker image for that area.
Both employ various methods of covering, from simply using a hand or piece of paper to creating custom templates. Further, the edge of the dodge or burn can be softened by moving the covering slightly as the paper is exposed.
All of this allows a photographer to create different exposures throughout one frame, which can more closely mimic the scene as it was when shot, or to use artistic expression to alter an image to one’s liking.
Now then, how can you use these techniques for your own gain in the modern age?
I’m going to show these techniques in use on Adobe Lightroom but they can be practiced on any program which allows for selective masking and exposure changes.
First, the image from a recent review of a Sigma 50-500mm lens (click on any image for a larger version).
The shot was taken with an iPhone and exposed for the lens with gray, overcast skies. I want to highlight the lens and diminish the background. The first thing I do is choose the Adjustment Brush and the Burn feature as such:
For this photo, the Burn setting is not dark enough for me, to be honest. I take the Exposure for this mask to -1.17 and this is the result:
The camera and lens are now darker, helping them stand out better against the background. I now want to do the opposite with the background. I want to dodge it to lighten it, further highlighting the lens. I start by painting a mask of the background:
Again, the Dodge is not to my liking and I instead change the exposure for this mask to be lighter.
With these masks, I can also change contrast or brightness (done away with in Lightroom 4) to further highlight my subject if I liked. In this example I am keeping things simple.
The result is slight, but can be more dramatic if need be.
Before:
After:
Burning and Dodging have been around as long as making prints has been an art form where the photographer wished more control over their medium. The techniques are still highly relevant in today’s modern, digital era and I now hope you have a better understanding of where the terms came from and how best to use them.
Thank you for reading.
Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.
Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.
What Are Burning And Dodging And How They Can Help Your Photos
Abstract: Weekly Photography Challenge
Every weekend we issue a a photographic challenge to dPS readers to participate in – the hope is that it will help you improve some aspect of your photography by setting out to take a new photo on a particular theme.
This week your challenge is to take – and share – a photo on the theme of ‘Abstract’.
Of course ‘Abstract’ will conjure different images in different people’s minds. There’s no real right or wrong here so you can take the theme in any direction – but if you’re looking for a starting point in my mind at least Abstract photos are often those that present a recognisable subject matter in an unusual way. You can do this in any way – perhaps by only shooting part of a subject, photographing it from an unusual angle, taking an extreme closeup, using some creative focusing – or may be just finding a subject that is unusual in and of itself.
Once you’ve selected the ‘Abstract’ image that you’d like to share – upload it to your favourite photo sharing site or blog and either share a link to it or – embed them in the comments using the our new tool to do so.
Remember these challenges are not just about finding pictures in your archives to share – we’d really love to see you getting out your camera and taking a new photo – after all that’s what dPS is about, helping you take better shots rather than just celebrating past shots.
If you tag your photos on Flickr, Instagram, Twitter or other sites with Tagging tag them as #DPSRED to help others find them. Linking back to this page might also help others know what you’re doing so that they can share in the fun.
Also – don’t forget to check out some of the great shots posted in last weeks challenge – RED challenge where there were some great shots submitted.
Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.
Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.
Abstract: Weekly Photography Challenge
RED: Weekly Photography Challenge
Image by MonkeyMagic1975
It’s been a couple of years since we ran a ‘RED’ weekly photography challenge – so here we go again.
Your challenge this week is to take and share an image or two that are predominately the colour red. Anything goes – red lipstick on lips, strawberries, fire engines, red sunsets…. anything you like.
Once you’ve selected the ‘RED’ image that you’d like to share – upload it to your favourite photo sharing site or blog and either share a link to it or – embed them in the comments using the our new tool to do so.
If you tag your photos on Flickr, Instagram, Twitter or other sites with Tagging tag them as #DPSRED to help others find them. Linking back to this page might also help others know what you’re doing so that they can share in the fun.
Also – don’t forget to check out some of the great shots posted in last weeks challenge – Less is More challenge where there were some great shots submitted.
Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.
Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.
RED: Weekly Photography Challenge