BetterPhotoJim

Creative Photography - Pay Attention to Shadows!

When used to creative advantage, lighting contrast can make for eye-catching images. Look for scenes that play on the interplay of sunlight and shadow.

(c) Jim Zuckerman

BetterPhoto instructor Jim Zuckerman, for instance, points out that shadows are an "integral part of picture taking. Sometimes they can be distracting, and other times they add artistry and visual impact to your images" (such as in the photo above).

(c) Jim Zuckerman

"Sometimes it is ideal to show detail and texture in shadows," says Jim Z, "such as in the Caribbean composition I took in the Dominican Republic" (above).

(c) Jim Zuckerman

Other times, says Jim Zuckerman, "shadows are best rendered black, as in the sand dune picture" (above).

(c) Jim Zuckerman

Also, he says, "try including your own shadow in a picture sometimes. It can be a fun exercise."

Have fun working with light, shadow, and creativity!

NOTES:

- Jim Zuckerman is a top stock photographer and published author who teaches many excellent online photography courses at BetterPhoto.com, including
Perfect Digital Exposure, Developing Your Creative Artistic Vision, and Eight Steps to More Dramatic Photography.

- Get BetterPhotoJim blog posts automatically! Sign up for an RSS feed.

- Like these ideas? A new book will be published this October - by Jim Miotke and Kerry Drager! Check it out: The BetterPhoto Guide to Creative Digital Photography, which focuses on composition, color, and design.

Polarizing Filter: Tips for Buying and Using

Hi All, Peter Burian is not only one of BetterPhoto's top online instructors, he's also a reviewer for many photo magazines.

Check out his excellent new photography blog over at BetterPhoto Instructor Insights:

Polarizing Filter: Tips for Buying and Using

Thanks -
Jim

Creative Photography and High Contrast Light

Hi All,

As outdoor photographers, we all confront problems of high lighting contrast. It's so important to recognize the difference between what we see with our eyes and what the camera can see.

Over at BetterPhoto Instructor Insights, Rob Sheppard takes on this subject with a terrific photography blog:

• Creative Photography and High Contrast Light

Thanks,
Jim

It's Back ... Big Course Sale!

Hi All,
We've just brought back our huge sale: $20 off on all online photography courses! Check out our listing of interactive online photo classes. Just enter Summer11 in the Gift Card field when you sign up.

The next session kicks off on July 6th, 2011. If you enroll now, you not only receive a great savings but you'll also be able to get started today with an early lesson!

More info: See how our awesome courses work...

How to Get More 'Wow' Impact in Your Photos!

Do most of your photos originate from one shooting position - standing and pointing the camera straight ahead? While that might be the best perspective in many situations, playing with point of view is a sure-fire way to add more of a "wow" impact to your pictures.

Photography is about discovering the best viewpoint to capture your subject or scene. It's about choosing a lower or higher camera angle in order to create more innovative and eye-catching images. The only limit is your curiosity. For instance:

Looking upward - (c) Jim Miotke

Look upward and skyward. Try this inside a capital dome or cathedral, in a forest, or in a city downtown when surrounded by skyscrapers. Sometimes a wide-angle is the best lens choice, but the keyword is experimentation.

Getting down low - (c) Jim Miotke

Try a low camera angle - by sitting, kneeling, or even stretching out. This is great for catching short subjects like kids and pets at their eye level, and for showing unique perspectives of flowers.

Looking downward - (c) Jim Miotke

Look down from on high. This can mean, simply, pointing the camera downward from a standing position - to catch a unique view of an arrangement of flowers or rocks, an interesting tile floor, a tide pool, or a pet. Otherwise, try an elevated view - from a building's balcony, the top of a staircase, a coastal bluff, a scenic overlook, etc.

Have fun going high, getting low, and trying out new perspectives!

Notes and Tips:
- Like these concepts? Then don't miss my new book (co-authored with Kerry Drager): The BetterPhoto Guide to Creative Digital Photography, which focuses on composition, color, and design. The latest in my best-selling BetterPhoto Guide series, it's due out in October 2011.
- Get BetterPhotoJim posts automatically! Sign up for an RSS feed.

Photoshop CS5: Try out Textures in Mini Bridge

At BetterPhoto, we have a number of excellent online courses on Photoshop. One of our top instructors is Deborah Sandidge, and she always comes up with so many techniques for Photoshop CS5 creativity.

In fact, she says, using Mini Bridge in CS5 is a great way to try out textures! She's a big fan of Flypaper Textures. And Deb adds: "I have a collection of my own that I like to use. Mini Bridge allows you to easily try out any texture from your texture folders (JPEG or TIFF) to see how it works with your image."

(c) Deborah Sandidge

This sailboat was photographed on a clear sunny afternoon, says Deb Sandidge, "knowing that the empty sky and neutral background would work well with a texture layer. I selected the folder Flypaper Textures Summer Painterly from Mini Bridge, and chose Sariel Leather, a beautiful golden toned texture, and dragged it over the sailboat image. The next step is to choose a blend mode (I chose Overlay).

"You can experiment with a texture, blend mode and opacity, pressing the Escape key to remove the texture, or Enter key to choose it. The texture can easily be resized by pulling out the corners to fit your background image. This allows you to try out textures - easy and fast!"

(c) Deborah Sandidge

Here is Deb's rundown on how to make it even easier:

• Navigate to your texture folders in Mini Bridge.

• Find a texture that suits your image from your texture folder.

• Drag the texture from Mini Bridge over your photograph (texture layer is a Smart Object).

• Choose a Blend Mode, you can change this later, you can try Overlay to start with.

• If you like the result, press the Enter key. If you want to remove it, press the Escape key.

• Resize the texture to fit your image (dragging the corners out to fit as shown above).

• You can choose a variety of texture and blend modes this way!

Adds Deb Sandidge: "The idea of this tutorial is to make it easier to experiment with textures! My friend Anna Cary gave me this tip about Mini Bridge to share - thanks so much, Anna!

"I cover more about textures in my online BetterPhoto.com courses - Photoshop - Enhancing Digital Images and Creating Works of Art and Digital Infrared Photography. Hope to see you there!"

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Creative Digital Photography: Tips on Getting Inspired

Do you always feel inspired? Creative? Ready to capture some photographic masterpieces?

Well, here's the bottom line: Most of us have faced situations in which absolutely nothing looks photogenic. But there are many sure-fire ways to bust out of the inspiration doldrums. Here are a few of them:

- Visit a new place, since fresh locations can be very motivating. This doesn't have to be far afield. In fact, it can be the local zoo, a nearby park, or a tourist attraction - just a place you have ignored with your camera.

Foggy Early Morning - (c) Jim Miotke

- Go out in inspiring light - very early or very late day. Beautiful light has a way of making ordinary subjects look extraordinary!

- Return to favorite places where you've had previous photo success. This time, however, approach things in a different way. Use another lens, try other viewpoints, visit at another time of day, etc. Re-visits are a great way to "force" your creativity.

- Reviewing fine photography is an awesome motivator. For instance, check the photo galleries of winners in BetterPhoto's online photo contest.

- Attend a community festival, sporting event, county fair, classic car show, etc. At a special happening, you'll find eye-catching subjects all around you.

Dew Abstract Macro - (c) Jim Miotke

- Lastly, this may be the best go-to solution: Move in close. In fact, close-ups – via either regular lenses or specialized macro gear – offer a brave and artistic new world. Also, an intimate scene (i.e., no sky) is just the thing for an overcast day, since the soft light helps enhance colors and details.

Have fun whipping up the creative juices!

Notes:

- Like these ideas? Then check out my new book (co-authored with Kerry Drager): The BetterPhoto Guide to Creative Digital Photography, which focuses on composition, color, and design. This book - the latest in my best-selling BetterPhoto Guide series - is due out in October 2011.

- Get BetterPhotoJim blog posts automatically! Sign up for an RSS feed.

How to Get the Best Photos at Twilight

Twilight is an amazing time to get out and photograph the great outdoors! The terms dusk, dawn, and twilight are often used interchangeably to define the periods between sundown and nighttime, and at the start of the day, between nighttime and sunup. Well, whatever term you use, here’s the bottom line: Whenever you can, get out there before sunup and, in the evening, stick around after sundown.

For BetterPhoto instructor and top pro Deborah Sandidge, twilight is a favorite time to take pictures. And on a trip to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Deb says, the sky was absolutely magical! See her photo below.

(c) Deborah Sandidge

"It's tricky shooting anchored boats," points out Deb. "As other boats pass by, the ripples from the water are magnified into big waves that I had to just wait out. I liked the mirror perfect reflections caused by the long exposure and great weather conditions. There is slight movement with some of the boats in the photo, but it adds to the realism, and I'm happy with the end result!"

Twilight lasts for a short time, so it's important to be be in place and ready to shoot. Here are Deb Sandidge's tips and techniques on how to shoot at twilight:

• Scout out locations first. It's easier to find potential compositions before the sun goes down.

• Exposures will be long, you'll need a sturdy tripod. I use a Feisol CT-3442 which weighs 2.31 lbs and folds down to 19 inches. Perfect for travel and everyday use.

• Keep it level. Use Live View or place a bubble level on the hotshoe of your camera.

• Use a cable release or self timer feature. The exposure was 60 seconds long, the Bulb feature helped with the timed exposure. I shot this with the Nikon D7000 that I'm giving a whirl for travel, along with the Nikon 28-300mm lens. Beautiful combination, and this lens is fabulous on the D3s!

• Consider the white balance. Try starting with 4000K or Daylight (5000K) to see how it looks with your scene. White balance isn't etched in granite, you may like the look of a given setting although it's not "technically correct." Experiment, and see what works best for your composition.

• Try manual exposure. Set the aperture for the desired depth of field, and decide how long the exposure will need to be. You may even want to make a series of exposures for HDR. Or, think about putting together a panorama of the scene!

• Wait for the "blue hour." You may want to shoot during and after sunset, then wait for beautiful blue quality of balanced light in between daylight and darkness. There's an app for that. Light Tracker, Helios, Velaclock, Sunrise & Set, and for tracking stars on the iPad try Sky Walk.

• Be inventive. Think about creative lens choices or angles, Make your shot different and unique!

Have fun shooting!

Notes:
- Join Deborah Sandidge for her online photo workshops at BetterPhoto's digital photography school: Photoshop - Enhancing Digital Images and Creating Works of Art and Digital Infrared Photography.

- Get BetterPhotoJim posts automatically! Sign up for an RSS feed.

White Balance: Why You Should Go Off Auto-Pilot!

Natural light comes in many colors, depending on the time of day, the weather, and the sky. That's the reason behind the digital camera's white balance (WB) setting. But with all the WB pre-sets and custom settings, things can get pretty confusing, so photographers often set things on "auto-pilot" - the automatic white balance (AWB) setting.

While AWB can work great at times (i.e., when quickly moving back and forth between indoors and outdoors), in other situations, it can be inconsistent. For example, AWB doesn't know that sunset and sunrise have a warm color cast, and may try to cool things down - ouch, definitely not good!

But here's a single setting that a lot of people use as a default for natural-light scenes: daylight (sunlight) WB. I use it all day long, since a daylight WB "sees" the world in a neutral way, and as a result, accurately depicts the varied tints and tones of most outdoor situations. Sure, once in a while, I'll go off default – say, in the bluish-toned shade on a sunny day when I want to warm up things with a shade or cloudy WB, or at twilight when I might occasionally try a tungsten (incandescent) WB setting to emphasize the blues at day's end. Otherwise, it's daylight from dawn to dusk.

Of course, if you shoot in Raw, you can easily tweak the WB in post-production. But getting it right at the time of shooting "forces" you to pay attention to the colors of light (part of mastering the art of color digital photography), and it’s one less thing to do in the digital darkroom.

Cayucos Pier at Dawn ... (c) Kerry Drager

Stairway Shadow at Sunset ... (c) Kerry Drager

Kerry Drager - BetterPhoto instructor and my co-author of the upcoming book, The BetterPhoto Guide to Creative Digital Photography - works the same way I do. Check out the photos above from his recent shoot along California's Central Coast - a stairway shadow scene in the warm tones of evening and an ocean view during the cool blue of dawn. Both were captured in Raw with a daylight/sunlight WB setting that, he says, correctly reproduced the colors just as he them.

Here are the WB thoughts of two other BetterPhoto instructors:

• Best White Balance Method by Jim Zuckerman

• Auto White Balance: Why It's Rarely a Good Choice by Rob Sheppard

JPEG Tip: If you shoot JPEGs, be sure to check the image on the back of your camera. You may wish to change the setting if you don't like the overall color tone. Or, in some cases, you might want to shoot two or three versions - each with a different WB - in order to compare them later.

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Get More Creative with Your DSLR Lenses!

Are you pushing your lenses to their creative limits? Lens focal length has more of an impact on artistic design than you might imagine. While zooming is always an important part of composing a scene, it's not the only approach. Another process has been called "zooming with your feet," and it simply means moving physically closer to the subject for an entirely different viewpoint. By the way, that's how photographers "zoomed" in the olden (pre-zoom) days!

Oh, I know how easy it is to just stand in one spot and then zoom back and forth. Often, you'll get the composition you want, but not always. Plus, you'll be missing out on other visual perspectives if that's the only thing you do. The idea is to mix it up whenever possible. Zooming AND moving should both be tools in your creative arsenal.

BetterPhoto staffer/instructor Kerry Drager, who is also co-author of my upcoming book The BetterPhoto Guide to Creative Digital Photography, regularly applies this approach to his wide-angle photography. Shooting at a distance just doesn't provide the same unique perspective. That's why Kerry often refers to the wide-angle as a "creative close-up lens."

(c) Kerry Drager - f/19 @ 1/45 sec.; ISO 200; 20mm

As an example, consider this photo, captured at Morro Bay (along the California Coast) just moments before sunset. Kerry set up his camera - on a tripod - low down and close up (within an arm's length away) to this wonderful old multi-painted boat. He also used a small aperture (f/19) in order to get a good depth of field - sharpness from near to far.

By moving in tight with a 20mm lens, he was able to create the wide-angle's "exploded" perspective. That means the subject appears disproportionately large in the foreground, while at the same time, story-telling details can be seen in the background.

Whether you're shooting wide-angle or telephoto, have fun "zooming" the old-fashioned way!