Category: Photography Tips & Tricks

Do you need a drawing tablet?

By John Watson
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I was cleaning out my office today when I ran across the most unlikely of items—an original Koala Pad drawing tablet! According to Wikipedia, the Koala Pad was the first graphics tablet available for home computers. (That makes me sound older than I’d like but I’m only 34!)

Koala Pad
Click to enlarge

Today, I own a Wacom tablet and I love it. It offers a level of intuitive ease of use far beyond what a mouse can provide for certain operations. As a digital photographer, a graphics tablet might be an important piece of equipment but it depends a lot on your digital workflow.

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Choosing the right white balance setting will change your life!

By John Watson
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Well, not really. But it will make your photographs better. I know what you’re thinking. “White balance? Isn’t that technical? Eyes. Glazing. Over.” Don’t worry, it’s really simple to understand, just as easy to adjust, and it will make your photographs better.

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Using Depth of Field in Photos

By Elizabeth West
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[Notice the byline? Please welcome Elizabeth West to Photodoto. Elizabeth is a writer by profession and a collector of historic images of women. She’s also recently jumped into the digital camera market with both feet and currently shoots a Canon EOS 30d, Olympus 740 UZ, and a Canon Digital Elph (which she won in a Photodoto photography contest!). You can learn more about her writing and collection at her websites: Eduwrite at Cornerhost and EWestPhotos. — John]

Depth of field is a concept dear to the hearts of many photographers. Briefly, it means the depth of the pictured area that appears to be in focus. People describe this area as being shallow or deep. Some may refer to it as narrow or wide. The words don’t matter, but the concept does.

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RAW vs. JPG: Correcting under/over-exposure

By John Watson
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I was reading a discussion the other day about how shooting in RAW mode saved some under-exposed shots. Accepted wisdom seems to be that correcting under and over exposure is much easier/better with RAW than JPG. Without making any judgments, I decided to try it out and see if it was true.

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REVIEW: Digital Portrait Photography and Lighting

By John Watson
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Digital Photography and Lighting book cover“A portrait is a likeness.” Digital Portrait Photography and Lighting by Catherine Jamieson and Sean McCormick (published by Wiley) starts with this simple definition and premise and goes on to declare that “the photographic portrait may well be one of the more important social tools we have.” It’s no secret that I love making portraits—it’s probably my favorite type of photograph. So I was excited to finally find some time to read this book.

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REVIEW: Photostockplus.com

By John Watson
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I had the opportunity a couple of weeks ago to try out Photostockplus.com, a unique site that allows photographers to not only sell stock licensing rights to photos (like iStockPhoto) but also to sell event prints at prices you set through a turnkey, customizable e-commerce system. The combination makes it a one-stop solution for selling event photos and also the “left overs” from events that could be used as stock.

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The difference between taking and making

By John Watson
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“To take photographs means to recognize—simultaneously and within a fraction of a second—both the fact itself and the rigorous organization of visually perceived forms that give it meaning. It is putting one’s head, one’s eye and one’s heart on the same axis.” — Henri Cartier-Bresson

You’ve probably heard people say they make photographs. Maybe you thought nothing of it. But making a photograph is a distinctly different approach to photography than taking. Taking implies coming upon or discovering something, lying in wait, to grab or trap. When you take photos, you go into the world and you find scenes to capture. Making implies building a scene from parts. Creating something from nothing. Choosing which elements to include and which to exclude.

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