One question I always get asked is how much your gear matters. Does your photography improve all that much when you take that leap and purchase a much better camera, or do you only need so much? Having thought about this quite a lot, I devised a simple way to test whether it’s you or your gear, and I came up with some surprising results. Do you want to know what really makes great photographers great? It’s not what you’d expect.
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Over the years, I’ve learned that a lot of photography skills bleed into other areas. If you learn about action photography, it’ll help you learn how to take pictures of waterfalls. If you know how to photograph snow, you’ll probably be good at photographing sand. Another example is macro photography. Very few people know that macro photography is a primer for taking perfect portraits. How so? Here are a few reasons why.
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Glare. It’s what happens when the sun reflects off of a surface and into your eyes. We wear sunglasses because they cut out the glare and allow us to drive safely during the day. Glare is a problem in photography too. A little bit of glare can accent a photo and make it look unique. Too much glare makes it hard to figure out what’s going on in a scene. If your photos have too much glare, here are a few things you can do about it.
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Nobody wants to be plagiarized or ripped off, but it’s often a fact of life when you taken pictures and post them to sites like Flickr, Instagram, or Facebook. Heck, it can even happen in otherwise professional business relationships where trust has eroded between you and your clients. As a photographer, there isn’t much you can do to stop others from taking your work and using it (although, you have some options), so what can you do once the deed has been done?
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Have you ever wanted to take photos of things that aren’t really there? Structures that defy the laws of nature, or the ‘invisible man’, where you only see his clothes? How about painting with light to make beautiful designs and structures that are only limited by your imagination. Or ‘Multiplicity photography’ where your subject appears in the same image multiple times. Trick Photography and Special Effects is a fascinating eBook by Evan Sharboneau, a young photographer who has developed an amazing talent for capturing just that. Truly unique images that you don’t normally see. Read my review below.
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What makes an image beautiful? For many, it’s color. But your camera isn’t going to give you great colors out of the box. It’s a ‘dumb’ piece of equipment. Even with all of our sophisticated computer technology, your camera is still guessing which settings will reveal the best photo. Most of the time, it’s wrong, and that’s why you get a lot of grey and washed out images when you use automatic settings. Other camera settings are much more ideal for creating heightened color contrast. Let’s have a look at them.
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[opinion] Instagram is a popular photo sharing tool on the web, and Facebook just bought it for $1 Billion. This an unprecedented move for Facebook. They’ve never made such a purchase, and they may never do it again. What intrigues me more than anything is that Instagram is nothing more than a simple photography tool. Why is it so popular, how can you use it for your own photography, and more importantly, how come it’s worth $1 Billion?
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Once you go with RAW files, it seems like you never go back. I’ve said before that RAW photography isn’t for everyone. Even so, I feel that there comes a time in every photographer’s life when making the switch to RAW just makes sense. For me, it came just after my purchase of a high powered computer with a nice 500GB hard drive. Now that I can store all those digital negatives, I want nothing more than to take all of my pictures in RAW. Here’s how you can get on the RAW bandwagon with Adobe Photoshop Elements.
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We’re nearing the end of winter, and that means it’s time to shake off the dust and ramp up your photography. The weather is nice, the sunsets are gorgeous, and before you know it, summer will have come and gone. Right around this time of year, I like to get into some habits so I’m constantly taking pictures while the time is right. Try ‘em out, and you’ll be surprised at how much more you’ll get done this summer (or year round).
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Feeling like you’re always the photographer and never the photographed? I wouldn’t consider myself a particularly vain person, but if I’m going to take some nice photos of my friends, I’d at least like to have a few good ones of myself. If you’re tired of seeing yourself at the center of mediocre photos that could have easily turned out much better, pay attention. I’m going to show you how to teach your friends to take a decent photo.
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Learning how to use the more advanced features of your camera is a challenge for anyone new to photography. Sometimes you wish there were some way to boil it all down to some easy-to-understand model. I always tell new photographers that if they want to learn more about their camera, they should learn about shutter priority mode first. Here’s why.
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What makes something special? Is it special on its own, or is it only special when compared to everything else around it? Contrast is what happens when you place two polar opposites right next to each other. It can be used to draw attention to an important element in your image. Contrast comes in a variety of forms, and in this article, we’re going to look at a few ways you can use contrast to create truly unique images.
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How you frame your subject can make or break a photo. If you put your subject in a place that commands the viewers attention, you’ll immediately have an outstanding photo. This subtle technique is known to many as “composition,” and believe it or not, it has a few simple rules that will give you some stunning results. Try out these 5 unbelievably easy rules for framing your subject, and you’ll see what I mean.
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What is focus? In photography, it’s practically married to sharpness. An image that is completely sharp is said to be in-focus. An image that’s completely blurry is said to be unfocused. The same metaphor applies to your mind. When you concentrate, your mind is sharp. You are focused. When you’re confused, you lack focus. As you are about to learn, you can use focus to direct your viewer’s attention to the most important parts of a scene. Here’s how.
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How many times have you taken a picture, only to reconcile it to the trash bin because it just didn’t turn out the way you like? I know it’s happened to me countless times. Images can fail for a number of reasons, but that doesn’t mean you have to give up on them. I still hold onto some of my worst photography because it only serves as a reminder of how much I’ve grown, but I can also use those photos to make something new. Here are a few ideas.
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