Tag: Tips & Tutorials

4 Killer Tips To Nail Your Next Portrait Shoot

By Paul Faecks
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If you’re a portrait photographer perhaps you’ve found yourself in the position of carrying bulky, heavy gear around. That’s unnecessary though. With these 4 easy tips you’ll be able to get the best results at your next portrait session without the hassle and the back pain afterwards.

These tips also help you save a fair amount of money that you can spend elsewhere (Perhaps on the 4k$ Zeiss Otus 85mm?) Just kidding, unless you’re rich you won’t be able to afford the Zeiss anyways…

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Ultimate Guide To Blending Modes in Photoshop

By Melanie Mayne
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The blending modes feature is one of Photoshop’s most undervalued tools for Photographers. Blending modes can be used to alter the ways in which each layer interacts with the layers below it, allowing for endless possibilities when it comes to setting the right tone or adding artificial lighting.

How to Master Blending Modes in Photoshop

Graphic designers and digital illustrators use blending modes all the time to create interesting lighting effects or textures; however, most digital photographers don’t realize that blending modes can be useful when working with photographs, too. The right combination of blending modes can set a dramatic tone that is otherwise difficult to achieve.

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Retouching with Cloning Tools: Part 3

By Melanie Mayne
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In Part 1 and Part 2 of the Retouching with Cloning Tools series, you learned what cloning tools are used for and the differences between each tool. In this part of the series, you will follow a step-by-step tutorial to learn how to remove power lines (or other unwanted objects) from an otherwise beautiful photograph.

This particular image contains distracting power lines on the left side of the stylish building, but the photo is oriented in such a way that simply cropping them out would look strange.

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10 Ugly Things You Don’t Want to See in Your Images

By George Bailey
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Laziness is the first motive of progress – it makes us optimize our workflow to work less and rest more.
But prior to some chilling out, we need to do our job really well, just to avoid correcting our own mistakes over and over again.

ugly-things-preview

Here are some hints for lazy photographers like me, who want to save time on retouch and devote more time to the fun of shooting. Or just to sleep more, or whatever.

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DSLR 101 – ISO

By Ray Davis
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Time for lesson number two in our DSLR 101 series! Our topic today? You may have heard of it, it’s a little thing called ISO.

What?
ISO is traditionally a measure of film speed; basically how sensitive a roll of film is to light. Obviously if you’re using a DSLR you’re not using film but your camera still has ISO settings. Instead of film it’s a reference to how sensitive the camera’s image sensor is to light. ISO settings can vary greatly but most cameras have at least 100, 200, 400, 800, and 1600. The lower the number the less sensitive the sensor is to light.

Why?
Although lower ISOs are usually desirable (leave your camera on Auto settings and it’ll choose 100 or 200 most of the time) to give you clear, sharp photos there are times when a higher ISO can be useful.

Choosing a higher ISO allows you to use a higher shutter speed or smaller aperture. This is especially useful for shooting in low light, particularly shooting action in low light (for example indoor sports events or concerts).

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Winter Photography Tips

By Ray Davis
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Yes, it’s almost Christmas and yes, there’s the tree to decorate, and those holiday cards aren’t going to print themselves, and you really should untangle those strings of lights. But winter isn’t just about Christmas so if you feel like taking a break from Santa and his friends here are a few tips for capturing some non-Christmas winter snaps.

1. Get your equipment prepared. Don’t forget spare batteries (the cold will sap their energy faster) and try and think about packing some hand warmers in your camera bag to keep your camera all warm and toasty.

2. Overexpose! One of the main problems with photographing snow is the fact it’s so shiny and white. Your camera’s light metre will struggle with all that white shininess and read it as grey. Many point and shoot cameras have a “snow” mode you can use or for a DSLR try overexposing the shots (try +1 or +2 if you have automatic exposure compensation).

3. Try a graduated filter. For grey-sky days a graduated filter can give the sky a bit of colour and make the pictures look a little less overcast.

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Quick Tips for Photographing Autumn

By Ray Davis
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Up here in the Northern hemisphere autumn is most definitely on its way. In my town we went from 90F+ last week to 60F this week and some rain came along too. It’s not bad news though because autumn can be the best time of year for photography. The light is great and there’s all those pretty colored leaves to document. Here are a few quick tips to help you make the most of the season:

1.Take advantage of the shorter days. You don’t need to get up at the crack of dawn to photograph a sunset and that pretty warm evening glow occurs early in the evening. So even if you’re too lazy to photograph in the beautiful first-light/last-light in summer now you can get out there and capture it.

2. Get the details. Leaves are, of course, a big part of autumn photography. Put your camera on a low f-stop and get in close, capture the color and the detail of the leaves. Don’t leave out the big picture but these closer shots can really capture the color of the season.

3.

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Brush Up Your Skills!

By Ray Davis
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For most of us up here in the Northern hemisphere the summer is over and we’re back to work, school, and the regular routine. Once the first day of school pics are taken it’s easy to put down the camera and forget about photography only to remember it’s existence when Halloween rolls around. But wait! Don’t do that! Practice makes perfect (or at least slightly improved) and that’s as true for photography as anything else. So keep the camera out and use these tips to keep your eyes in shape over the coming months. That way there’ll be no dust to shake off when the festive season rolls around.

1. Get down on your knees or up on a chair or really anywhere that gives you a different perspective of something you’ve seen a million times. I have a friend who gets up on the roof of her house once each season and photographs her family standing in the garden looking up at her. It gives a different perspective of the garden and makes a great portrait.

2. Get in close and practice getting some beautiful bokeh. Click here for our easy to follow guide to bokeh.

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Capturing Birthday Memories

By Ray Davis
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ribbons_raydavisWe celebrated a 6th birthday here recently and, of course, one of the aims of the day was to get some nice photographs. But how does one go about getting good birthday photos? Well, here free of charge, are ten tips for you:

1. Have a designated photographer (or two). Get someone who is not in charge of putting the candles on the cake, keeping the dog away from the kids, paying the magician, and keeping track of which present came from which child, to keep a camera in their hands and use it often during the party. If you can get two people even better. If there are specific moments you know you want shots of let your designated photographers know what they are before the party starts.

2. Start early. The party preparation can make for some great photos too, especially if the kids are helping set up or if a family member is baking the cake.

3. Get the light right. If you’re having the party indoors try and arrange key moments like blowing out the candles and opening presents to be in an area with good lighting.

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Get Summer Snap-Happy

By Ray Davis
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dandelion_rdavisSummer is officially here and for now, here at least, the rain has stopped, the kids are out of school, and families are getting ready to go on holiday. Whether you want to get some summer fun photos of your kids, capture memories of your romantic holiday in Rome, or just get out and photography the landscape lighting is one of the most important things to get right and can be particularly tricky in summer. Bright light can cause all sorts of problems from glare to underexposure to squinting subjects in your portrait photos. Here are some tips to help you avoid those problems:

Use a polarizing filter: if you’re using a D-SLR or SLR camera this is a simple solution to bright summer light, like Ray Bans for your lens a polarizer will filter out polarizing light which will provide richer saturation and reduce reflections on non-metallic surfaces.

Use your automatic settings: Your camera may have a setting for shooting in bright light (usually marked with a symbol of the sun) which can help you quickly and simply get better summer photos.

Avoid the brightest light: Another simple,

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