Photography Article Fall Round Up|Photography Artist Statement

Just in time for Thanksgiving, it's the Fall Round Up: your one-stop spot for a look back at this fall's posts. Catch up on the previous round ups here:Spring and Summer.

Yes, Go Chasing Waterfalls

Musings:

• Photography Is ... What is photography for you? Some thoughts about the importance of timing, patience, and luck.
• Boost Your Photography: Set a Goal or Challenge - Learn how setting, reviewing, and revising a photography goal or challenge can help move you forward in your photography.
• Photography Gifts for the Holidays and Where to Order Holiday Photography Gifts - Put your photography to good use this holiday season. Read about the wide variety of ways you can use your images to create memorable gifts for friends and family.

A collage mug is one of many ways you can use your photography for gifts.

For Beginners:

Explanations and overviews geared towards those wanting to get more out of their photography. Many of the 'Tips and Tricks' and 'Inspired Ideas' are also applicable.

• Aperture and the F-Stop Conundrum - Confused about aperture? This article is the place to start. The rest of this mini-series divides the aperture section into three:What an Aperture of F/1.8 Can Do for You,The Middle Range Apertures: f/8 and f/11, andWhat an Aperture of F/22 Can Do for You.
• Camera Lenses: What's In a Name? - An overview of camera lens naming conventions and what you need to know when looking for a new lens,Learn Your Lens: the lens itself - All about the functions and features of a lens, and Learn Your Lens: the accessories - Learn which camera lens accessories you need and how to use them.
• Yes, You Need a 50 mm Lens - Find out why a 50 mm lens is a great upgrade, especially from your kit lens(es), and it's a great steal, priced around $100.

Comparison of changing apertures from the wide, middle, and narrow ends of the spectrum.

Tips and Tricks:

Advice for getting the most of your camera and photography

• Zooming vs. Cropping: perspective in photography - Understand the differences between zooming vs. your lens, cropping afterwards, and the importance of changing your perspective.
• Easy Photography Upgrade: get a remote shutter release - Around $6 for a remote can make a big impact in your photography.
• Shoot a Successful Self-Portrait - Learn how to shoot a better selfie: how to focus and set the scene as well as a variety of ideas to try.
• Improve your Fall Photography: use a polarizer - Get those blue skies you've always wanted. Learn how to use a circular polarizer.
• Panning in Photography - Learn how to create panning shots with a frozen main subject and moving background.
• Thankful ... for Food Photography - A collection of tips and tricks for improving your food photography shots.

Inspired Ideas:

How to make the shot with specific photography ideas

• 50th Post and Six Month Blogoversary - Count down the Top 5 Most-Viewed Posts of the first 50
• Make the Shot: Slow Sync Photography - Get a behind-the-scenes explanation of how to create your own ghostly images using the slow sync function of your on-camera flash.
• Yes, Go Chasing Waterfalls - Suggestions and advice for what to bring and how best to shoot waterfalls with that long, silky water look.
• Local Tourism: Photograph the Harvest - Find photographic inspiration in your local harvest. Visit a pick-your-own orchard or pumpkin patch.

Travel Photography

• Photography Collections: start a collection - Consider a collage as a way to display travel memories. Unify your collage by focusing on a specific item or element, like full doors, door knobs, or even hearts.
• Window on the World - Windows are a unique way of placing the viewer within the frame of your photograph. Consider paying attention to windows when you travel.

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Photography Article Creative Christmastime Photography|Photography Artist Statement

Christmas is a vacation of love and lighting and presents many opportunities for thrilling and innovative pics. This publish is supposed to inspire your own Christmastime pics with some thoughts and examples of creative Christmas-themed pix (and to give you a few ideas of pics you can take without bothering the rest of the family!).

Make the Tree Shine

You can upload an additional sparkle for your Christmas tree through turning the lighting fixtures into starbursts. You will need a tripod to maintain the digital camera steady, and a far flung shutter release will assist. Use a extensive attitude lens, which include 18 mm. In aperture priority mode, set an ISO of one hundred and an aperture of f/22. This narrow aperture will motive each miniature light to be rendered as a starburst. Read greater about starbursts in my visitor put up on Digital Photography School.

Go for Silhouette

You can use just the glow of the Christmas tree to create exciting silhouettes. This is a exquisite technique to apply with children as well, as the glow of the lighting mirrors the excitement for Christmas on their faces. Expose the scene for the Christmas tree and glow, before positioning the character or folks for the silhouettes. (Read greater on Explaining Exposure and Exposure Compensation.) Try to use a mid-range or slender aperture to make bigger the glow and starburst effect. The image above turned into shot at ISO 100, f/eight, and a shutter velocity of 3.2 seconds. (Trying to get f/22 might had been a miles, lots longer shutter speed, and it'd had been tough for the challenge to keep nonetheless that long with out blur turning into glaring in the very last photograph.)

Use Bokeh

Two earlier posts this month explored the idea of bokeh and how to use it creatively in photographs: All about Bokeh and Shaped Bokeh. Christmas trees and other strings of Christmas lights offer an easy bokeh-filled background. You will need a lens with a wide aperture (like f/1.8 or f/3.5) for best results. For more details, read the previous posts.

In this photograph, the whole tree is used as a bokeh heritage for the statue. The implied shape of the tree is visible in the patterning of the bokeh and serves to shape a connection between the two figures sporting domestic their Christmas tree and the actual tree in the historical past. Using the complete tree as a bokeh shape could make an exciting backdrop for plenty sorts of pictures.

Capture the Whole House

Outdoor vacation lighting fixtures are another possible Christmas pictures problem. Plan to photograph the lighting fixtures on a clear night at some point of the Blue Hour, which starts about 15-20 minutes after sunset. Read all of the information within the submit on How to Photograph Outdoor Holiday Lights.

Focus on the Details

Christmas decorations and traditions make notable topics for a nevertheless existence. Here, the Christmas playing cards and Christmas cookies are complemented by way of a glowing association of embellishes and lights. Think about proposing a memorable or giant ornament in its personal image. Below is a small vignette created with miniature Christmas homes and characters, made greater unique as this turned into taken the primary Christmas after I received those from my grandmother.

Remember to Kick Back and Enjoy It

And of path, don't forget that Christmas is likewise a time to sit returned, loosen up, and experience the holiday, surrounded by means of human beings you like. Wishing you and yours a completely Merry Christmas!

Boost Your Photography: Learn Your DSLR is now to be had from Amazon. Get the most from your digital camera with realistic recommendation about the technical and creative factors of DSLR pictures so as to have you ever taking lovely pictures proper away.

Photography Article Boost Your Photography in the New Year|Photography Artist Statement

Happy New Year! Are you a person who makes New Years Resolutions? Even if you aren't, the start of the New Year is a high-quality time to make a dedication to improving your images. This publish will introduce you to numerous unique images projects and ideas to recall. You can, of direction, begin any of those projects at any time ? So why not begin nowadays?

365 Project

A 365 undertaking is the gold general of images undertaking commitments: the decision to take at the least one image every day for a year. If you are looking for a manner to massively increase your photography and solidify your abilties and commitment, then you definately should don't forget a 365 challenge. We all lament how we don't have time for photography or how we want that we should do extra with our digicam; tackling a 365 challenge will rid you of excuses and get you into the recurring of day by day photography.

Example of a month of 365 shots, right here from this beyond November

I started my 365 mission three years ago, on the second of January, 2011. (Even I changed into a chunk behind in getting in on the New Year's decision-making.) Now, well over 1000 days later, can without a doubt say that it was the satisfactory photography choice I could have made. I have learned immeasurably tons approximately my digicam, the way to use it, where to discover motivation, and what works for me, photographically. I even have additionally determined the effect of a supportive pictures community and the importance of accountability ? Even if it is duty to people you have in no way met in individual.

Interested? Want to find out more? Check out 365Project.org and consider joining for free today. And if you do, you can look me up at 365project.org/archaeofrog. Also, look for a full length article about 365 Project coming out next week on Digital Photography School.

Fifty two Weeks Project

Intimidated by way of the concept of every day images but nevertheless want to just accept a mission for the New Year? Consider as an alternative a 52 weeks venture. Just like the call implies, a fifty two weeks mission is a scaled lower back model, in which the focal point is on the usage of your digital camera and taking snap shots as a minimum once a week for a yr. This remains a notable motivator to preserve you the use of your camera and mastering new abilities. There are numerous exceptional web websites and Flickr corporations geared toward 52 weeks projects too.

One hundred Strangers Challenge

A 100 strangers task does now not have a time body however alternatively focuses on a specific kind of photography: street images of strangers. Many photographers find avenue images both exciting and intimidating, and the 100 strangers assignment changed into designed to push you from your consolation region and into avenue pictures. The premise is simple: discover and photo 100 strangers. Most contributors opt for a greater worried technique ? Speaking to and interacting with their subjects earlier than asking permission to take the image ? Rather than a greater covert 'wreck and grab' technique of taking pictures from farther away with a longer lens. Some photographers even prepare small commercial enterprise playing cards at hand out, to allow their 'strangers' to see and get entry to the very last photographs. There are many one hundred strangers corporations on Flickr and Facebook, with greater information and encouragement. Read greater about the one hundred Strangers Project right here.

A seller and his stand at the community Farmers' Market

Capturing the Seasons

Now is a superb time to think about beginning a year-lengthy rephotography challenge. January and February are extremely good months for iciness seasonal photos, so that you can begin scouting out capacity locations. Think approximately selecting a scene with a purpose to display off the dramatic variations inside the seasons for your area: trees, flowers, or different herbal areas are a super choice. Read more approximately Capturing the Seasons with Rephotography here.

Tagging and Catching Up on Old Photographs

This is probably the least interesting but most crucial images task that you may adopt, particularly in case you are a prolific photographer. If you do no longer have a constant plan for storing, organizing, and tagging your photographs, you want one. If you could no longer discover that one, best photograph you took of the waterfall final summer season, then what was the point of having taken it?

Sit down and spend a few minutes thinking about a way to prepare your photographs. Because I shoot each day, I use hold my photographs organized in folders by way of day after which maintain the ones folders in folders organized via year after which month. I use Google's free image editor and organizer, Picasa, but there are numerous other packages available for uploading and organizing photos.

Screenshot of Picasa

When confronted with a mountainous challenge, like sorting, organizing, and tagging all the images you have got ever taken up to date, it is easy to get crushed. There are some smooth hints you may positioned into movement that may assist preserve things practicable. (Some of those are based on thoughts from Gretchen Rubin's books and blog: http://gretchenrubin.Com/.)

• Start now and paintings backwards. As you take new snap shots, import them into an organized system and increase a way to without difficulty tag, kind, or rank them for future reference. (Read extra about what styles of tags to apply and why here.

• Devote 15 minutes a day to managing older photos. Set a timer and spot what you can get performed in handiest 15 mins. Maybe for the first at the same time as, all you get carried out is placing pix in folders or honestly locating where they're on your pc. The idea in the back of the 15 mins is that it is a small enough that you can commit to it however long enough that you'll honestly see progress speedy. Give it a try, and see what you watched!

Summary: Photography Resolutions

The New Year is continually a terrific possibility to take the time for reflection and to think about what you need to accomplish in the imminent 12 months. This post has furnished several special projects to boost your photography and get you started out on the road towards photography growth and development. Think approximately which might be a very good in shape for you: a 365 venture of daily images, a 52 weeks project of weekly pictures, the one hundred strangers mission of meeting and photographing human beings on the street, trying to capture all four seasons all through the course of the year, or sitting down and sooner or later getting those antique pictures tagged and prepared. What will you choose? Let us recognize inside the remarks!

Boost Your Photography: Learn Your DSLR is now to be had from Amazon. Get the most from your camera with practical advice approximately the technical and creative factors of DSLR images with the intention to have you ever taking stunning pictures proper away.

Photography Article Make the Shot: Droplet Refraction|Photography Artist Statement

Keeping our subject of macro and droplet images (Make the Shot: Water on CD), present day post offers you a behind-the-scenes study the classic water droplet multiplicity shot.

How to Shoot a Multidroplet Shot

You only need a few basic supplies to replicate a shot like the one above.

• A piece of glass or glass dishware (I used the glass from a photo frame for an 8x10.)
• Water spray bottle or eyedropper
• Plastic wrap
• Supports to hold up the glass (I used four pint glasses.)
• Colorful patterned paper or fabrics (You can even use an image on your tablet.)
• Tripod recommended (Read How to Maximize Your Tripod here.)

The setup, as proven under, is straightforward. Find a spot with a number of natural light (premiere, however you could also attempt with indoor lights too). Place the pint glasses some distance enough aside that you may effortlessly slide your patterned paper, fabric, or pill under. Wrap to top of your glass or glass dishware with a bit of plastic wrap. (The plastic wrap will assist the water bead up on the surface. Water sprayed on glass alone is much more likely to surely run off and smear.)

Use the water spray bottle to cover the plastic-wrapped glass in beads of water. Spray the use of a high-quality mist placing. The longer you spray, the more the water will conglomerate and the larger and larger your droplets may be. The aim is to have a good collection of comparable-sized droplets. (Alternatively, you can mix your water with a touch glycerin to boom the surface anxiety. And/or you can use a watch dropper to carefully vicinity evenly-spaced and sized drops.)

One you have your droplets searching the way you want them, you can lay out your first background pattern piece underneath the glass. (Wait until after you are completed spraying to do this element, otherwise your paper will come to be soaked.) Then, set up your tripod, if using. You will want to place your camera above the glass with the lens of the digicam parallel to the glass. This will make certain even focus throughout as many droplets as possible. Consider the use of a close-up lens, extension tubes,reverse ring mount adapter, or a macro lens to get a fair nearer-in shot of the droplets.

You will want to shoot with a fairly narrow aperture (like f/14 or f/22) on the way to get the whole droplet in awareness from pinnacle to backside. The photo above turned into shot at the huge aperture of f/2.Five, which has a very skinny intensity of area. In this shot, it's miles clean that only the pinnacle of the droplet is in cognizance. The aspects of the droplet, in evaluation, are already blurry and out-of-awareness.

This photograph was shot at f/14, which required a shutter speed of 1/3rd of a second. At that slow of a shutter, it is imperative to use a tripod, as any attempt at hand-holding for that long with result in visible camera blur and shake. Even at f/14, you may notice that the smaller droplets are not in focus but that you can clearly see the refracted and distorted views through the top and sides of the larger-sized droplets.

Play around with exclusive shapes and sorts of backdrops. 12x12 inch scrapbook paper works sincerely nicely as a supply for styles, as it's miles without problems obtained, less expensive, and a big enough size to cowl the entire refracted vicinity within the droplets. Both the flowers and shamrocks above have been scrapbook paper.

For this photograph, I used a image of mine shown on a 7 inch tablet. Because of the smaller size of the tablet, in comparison to the 12-inch paper, you can really see the edges of tablet or even the nearby window refracted in some of the droplets.

You can also use a unmarried picture, as opposed to a repeating design or sample. In the photograph above, every droplet is refracting a photograph of a unmarried water lily. This was a five x 7 inch image, and the white edges of the photograph are seen in a number of the droplets.

You can also see how the refracted image is rightside-as much as our eyes but that the unique picture is upside-down. Keep in thoughts that refracted images may be reversed if you are the use of an picture or pattern that has a discernible pinnacle and backside.

What Will You Refract?

The droplet refraction possibilities are infinite. What will you refract? Share a link inside the remarks beneath!

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Photography Article Capture a Day in a Single Image|Photography Artist Statement

Looking for an incredible manner to capture a favorite area or view? What about placing together a college of all of the changes in mild and climate across a unmarried day? This submit will discover how great to go about growing a memorable unmarried-day image like the one under.

(An apart: in case you neglected them, you may test out my photographs from this week's eclipse on Facebook:https://www.Facebook.Com/BoostYourPhotography .)

Image to be had for buy.

Preparing for the Day

The first step is to choose an appropriate composition. Think about a location that will be impacted by both the rising and setting sun and one that will highlight the various transitions of the sun and sky throughout the day. You also want to choose a location that is easily accessible for you. The more times that you can visit and photograph the location through the day, the more options (and more potential slices) you will have to choose from.

As far as equipment, I strongly endorse the usage of a tripod for those sort of pictures. A tripod will allow you to set up in approximately the identical place and height each time, if you want to make it notably less difficult to create the final merged picture. (Read here How to Maximize Your Tripod.)

When I shot the collection of pics for the cityscape, above, I used the "high-tech" method of laying down a chain of 'x marks the spot' sticks at the precise place of every leg of my tripod. Since I turned into taking pictures in a town park, this seemed like an smooth and unobtrusive manner of understanding precisely wherein to put my tripod each time I came returned to shoot during the day.

Don't have a tripod? Just mark where you stood after which shoot from eye level. The series of 3 shots above have been accomplished free-hand using my point-and-shoot digital camera.

How to Photograph a Series of Day Shots

Once you have your location chosen, you will want to stake out a good day to take the photographs. Watch the weather, and find a day that will fit well with your schedule. Days with some cloud cover are ideal, as clouds add an extra dynamic to landscape shots. You want to arrive on location and set up before or during sunrise to get the earliest shots for your series. Consider using a program like The Photographer's Ephemeris to plot out exact sunrise and sunset times and locations.

The settings you use will in the long run rely upon your scene and scenario. I knew that with these landscape-fashion pictures I desired to maximise the intensity of subject. Because I become using a tripod for all shots, it additionally did no longer be counted how long the shutter pace had to be. So, I chose to shoot the bulk of those photographs in Aperture Priority Mode (A or Av) at f/22 and ISO a hundred. I also shot the use of Exposure Compensation and bracketing at plus-and-minus one forestall so that it will get a variety of lighter and darker variations of each composition. (Questions approximately any of those settings? Read more approximately Aperture and the F/Stop Conundrum or All about Exposure or Troubleshooting Your Exposure.) The wooded area collection was shot with my factor-and-shoot the usage of Program mode at ISO a hundred and letting the camera choose the settings.

As stated already, I used a sequence of sticks to mark out the precise area of my tripod, in order that I ought to be sure of shooting the equal composition whenever. After taking pictures the huge view of the scene (as used for the opening picture), I additionally zoomed in and shot a 9-shot landscape model of the scene, to capture greater element and record more pixels for capability large prints.

Return as often as possible for the duration of the day to picture your scene. As it gets in the direction of nighttime, plan on staying around and capturing the sunset, twilight, and night photographs all together. There is best about twenty minutes of elapsed time between the last two shots of my cityscape, for instance. (Switch to Tungsten white balance on your deep night pictures to clearly accentuate the blues.)

Post-Processing: Creating the Collage

The final step is choosing your series of favorite shots and assembling the collage. The instructions below rely on Adobe Photoshop, but other collage programs or apps could also work.

First, select the entire series of photographs that you are planning to use, and copy and paste them into the same file. Then, select all of the photographs and choose the Edit -> Auto Align Layers option. I use the Auto setting. This will align all of the photographs together, eliminating any differences from your aim, composition, etc.

Auto-Aligning the Layers will leave gaps alongside the rims in which individual pix do now not overlap.

Use the crop device to create your very last composition. (Generally, aligning the layers will suggest that there are actually a few gaps alongside the edges of certain images.) Think approximately the factor ratio of your very last shot earlier than you crop: do you want to preserve it as a 4x6 or an 8x10 or widescreen? (Read greater approximately Aspect Ratio: Know Before You Crop.) For the model proven, I cropped to a 2:3 aspect ratio (4x6) but additionally did every other version with a widescreen (1:2.35) thing ratio.

Now you need to decide which portion of which picture to use as part of the final composition. Use guides to divide your composition into equal slices (or not, if you prefer). Then, click to select the top-most layer. Go to Layer -> Layer Mask -> Reveal All. This will add an all-white layer mask next to this layer. Now, use the select tool to select the sections of this image that you do not want to show.

The selected part of the image will have a black layer masks brought to hide it from view.

Click to select the layer masks, and then use the paint bucket tool to paint the choice black. This will cover that part of the image from view. Repeat this process of including a layer mask and choosing handiest the desired phase of every of the images. Then you will have your very last photo - a university across the day inclusive of a slice for every image!

Final composition displaying Layers Palette with black and white layer mask.

There you have it!  What will you photograph and create?  Share a link in the comments below!

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Photography Article Spring Roundup|Photography Artist Statement

Welcome to the Spring Round Up. This is a chance to look back at the posts from the last three months and catch up on any posts you might have missed.  You can also check out the previous round ups for Spring 2013, Summer 2013,Fall 2013, and Winter 2013-2014.

Consider joining within the Boost Your Photography: fifty two Weeks Challenge! Our consciousness for May changed into on pictures fundamentals. In June we can be looking at unique composition strategies. Join the Google Community to proportion your weekly photographs and obtain comments.

For Beginners

This is a collection of posts geared towards beginners or those who want to learn to do more with their camera. Many of the 'Tips and Tricks' and 'Inspired Ideas' posts will also be applicable. You can find other posts geared toward Beginners here or in the tab up top.

Shutter Speed:

an outline

Teaching Kids

Photography

What the ...

White Balance?

BYP 52 Weeks

Challenge

Focus on

Focus

Deciding Just Where to Focus: Focus Points

Explaining Exposure and

Exposure Compensation

Shutter Speed

Guidelines

Creative Ideas Using Shutter Speed

Tips and Tricks

Advice for getting the most out of your camera and your photography. You can find more Tips and Tricks posts here or in the tab up top.

Tips to Improve Your Macro Photography

Product Review:

Close-Up Lenses

Macro Fakery:

Background Creation

Product Review:

Light Tent Kit

Focus Stacking for

Macro Photography

Tell a Story with

Easter Photographs

five Food Photography

Articles

GorillaPod

Tripod Review

Photographing Architecture

Watch Your Lines

Top Tips for Camera

Memory and Storage

GorillaPod

Tripod Review

Inspired Ideas

This is a collection of posts containing ideas, both those that you can implement immediately and those that require a little more time, effort, and potential planning. You can find more Inspired Ideas here or in the tab up top.

Make the Shot:

Water on CDs

Make the Shot:

Droplet Refraction

Master the Heart-Shaped Shadow

Capture a Day

in a Single Image

Better Before/

After Photographs

Flipped

Reflections

Guest Posts

During the winter, I became a regular contributor to Digital Photography School. These are my posts that were published over on their site in the last few months.

How to Use a Light Tent

for Product Photography

Light Tent Comparison:

DIY vs. Kit

Travel Photography

with out the Travel

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