Stone Field Reverie

Image by Peter de Krom

I normally talk about the importance of using a flash when taking shots into the sun to give sufficient light to add features to your subject but there are also times when making your subject featureless apart from their outline against a bright background can be most effective – or when in other words silhouette is a worth exploring.

Silhouettes are a wonderful way to convey drama, mystery, emotion and mood to the viewers of your photos and often stand out in an album because of the combination of their simplicity but also the story that they convey. I love them because they don’t give the viewer of a clear picture of everything but leave part of the image up to their imagination to wonder about.

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Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DigitalPhotographySchool/~3/fDMIR3BatbY/how-to-photograph-silhouettes

A Guest Post by Joseph Eckert

The very first photographs were shot in black and white. Decades later, even after the advent of color, many photographers—especially those concerned with creating works of art—continued to shoot in black and white. The format remains popular even today: nearly every consumer-level digital camera has a black and white mode available (for outputting JPEGs directly from the camera in monochrome), and all digital darkroom editing suites have at least one (and usually multiple) means of changing a color photograph to black and white. Indeed, there are expensive plugins available for Photoshop that are entirely devoted to the process of converting a color shot into black and white, and there dozens of groups on Flickr and Picassa and 500px that are exclusive to black and white photography.

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Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DigitalPhotographySchool/~3/TN6stKbPH70/how-to-see-in-black-and-white-and-how-hdr-can-be-a-powerful-tool-for-the-monochrome-photographer

Words and images by Robin Whalley – www.lenscraft.co.uk

Before discussing options for the control of White Balance let’s consider why this so important to photographers. The first to recognise is that all light has a colour depending on its wavelength. This is true of both artificial and natural light. We are recognise this as it gives rise to colour, however light also has a colour temperature which is measured in something called Kelvin or K for short.

Here is the analogy someone once explained to me that helped me better appreciate light temperature. Imaging a bar of steel in a furnace as it starts to heat up. At first you might see it glow red. As it grows hotter it begins to turn white hot before changing to a blue white with the intensity of the heat. The Kelvin scale for light temperature is pretty similar to this. At the lower levels e.g. 3,000k light has a red colour to it and is said to be warm. This is because we associate the red end of the colour spectrum with warmth and the blue end with cold. Increase the colour temperature of the light to around 5,000k and it appears white. Beyond this at perhaps 8,000k and it begins to look blue.

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Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/EphotozineTechniques/~3/ptzX6ZCIWq0/creative-colour-and-white-balance-tips-17503

Image by Ahmed Zahid

‘No good travel photo album is complete without the token sunrise or sunset picture!’

Many travelers seem to live by this mantra – however most sunset and sunrise photographs that I see are quite disappointing.

They need not be – sunsets and sunrises are not that difficult to photograph!

Tips for Photographing Stunning Sunrises and Sunsets Read more »

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DigitalPhotographySchool/~3/UM8SPsu94As/how-to-photograph-sunrises-and-sunsets

Words by Emma Kay

Although it is said that the best time to photograph landscapes is either in the morning or evening as the sun goes down, there are times when you find yourself in a location that’s crying out to be photographed and it’s the middle of the day. So, here are a few tips to help you capture a shot that’s still great, even though the sun’s high in the sky and everyone’s out eating their lunch! Read more »

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/EphotozineTechniques/~3/3ymZV8EWKRM/tips-for-when-you-re-not-shooting-in-the--golden-hours--17184

When it comes to action and sports photography, one of the main problems you face is your subject moves quick and they don’t tend to stay in the same place for very long. As a result it can be a bit of a challenge to try and get a sharp photo where your subject is in focus, however there are a few things you can do to capture your moving subject perfectly.

Switch to AF Read more »

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/EphotozineTechniques/~3/FppRzmpwi1E/tips-on-photographing-action-and-movement-17396

You need to open two images: the one you want to adjust and the image you want to make a selection from to ‘borrow’ its colours. We are using a sunset shot as we want to warm our coastal shot up with its shades.

In the image you want to ‘borrow’ the colours from, make a selection around the part of the image that has the colours you want to use. Most of the time it will be the sky (as it is in our shot). We used the Quick Selection tool to make our selection.

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Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/EphotozineTechniques/~3/rU6wJyx9NWM/photoshop-tutorial--using-match-colour-17394

Tips On Using Slave Flashes

Words and pictures by Peter Bargh.
You may, at some stage, have been disappointed with the pictures you’ve taken with your camera using the built-in flash. This is because the flash on most is only capable of illuminating a subject that’s a maximum of three meters away from the camera and the light is also very directional.

You can improve things with a small accessory called a slave flash or by using a slave adapter on any detachable flashgun.

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Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/EphotozineTechniques/~3/rXomxiJ14dc/tips-on-using-slave-flashes-4815