Learning how to manage light is an important part of getting the images that you want, and improving those subtle little nuances that can affect your images negatively. Yes, you can spend beaucoup bucks on lighting units and modifiers and reflectors and diffusers, and these will certainly make your life easier if you’re doing portraiture in a studio – but not so much
Tag: contrast
Tip Jar 20: Disconnect
From the title, some people may think I mean going ‘off-grid,’ disconnecting from social media and internet and so on, or even disconnecting from a regular job or routine pursuits. But I mean something much subtler instead, and that is, thinking in terms of the strictly visual and not the ‘object’ and ‘location’ aspects in our heads.
To illustrate
Tip Jar 8: Curves, part 1
I’ve been meaning to get to this for a while, and finally tackled it this past week. Herewith, a tutorial on using the ‘Curves’ function in many image editing programs to adjust brightness and contrast within an image, selectively as needed.
As noted therein, this won’t work very well if your monitor is poorly calibrated for brightness, contrast, and gamma, so it’s recommended
Tip Jar 6: Autofocus
Today we’re going to talk about something that nearly every modern camera has, some better than others, but also has its faults specifically, so you know when it might become undependable and when to shut it off.
Autofocus has come a long way since its first application, but it still remains easy to fool in certain circumstances. Let’s begin with a little understanding of it. The most
Tip Jar 5: Light Angle
Not to get too deep into either fundamentals or philosophy, but, “photograph,” essentially translates to, “light drawing,” and light is what it’s all about… but that’s what sight’s all about too, so that’s kind of a “Duh!‘ thing. But light angle can be very important to your results, and it’s good to
Next batch of autumnal chroma
“Autumnal” – that’s where Radar O’Reilly is from, isn’t it?
Now on to part two of the recent fall color pics, most of them from right here at Walkabout Estates Plus, but a few from a downtown park. Like this one:
We actually saw this same tree last time – this is just a different spot on it. Making sure to use the backlighting, of course.
The
On composition, part 33: Impressions
Recent tasks brought this one to mind, an aspect of composition that can have significant effect but often remains entirely subconscious, so let’s talk about the subtle and tricky topic of impressions.
First off, I’ll say that from my own perspective, I more often stumble upon an image that provokes a certain impression, more so than I’ll actively aim for it, much less create it
Tripod holes 16
N 36° 5’2.73″ W 79° 8’27.55″ Google Earth Location
Today’s image comes from the banks of the Eno River, not too far away from where I used to live, a secluded little creekside area that I would visit from time to time. To get this image, I had to be sprawled flat on my stomach on a rock on the banks, with my legs extended far enough into the water behind me that my
And take your year with you
So here we are at the end of the month, and somehow at the end of the year – at the exact same time too, who’da thought? I admit to shooting extremely little this month, and even less that could be considered ‘abstract’ that I did not, thoughtlessly, already feature. I did toy around with freezing soap bubbles again when the temperature dropped low enough, but was not achieving
Visibly different, part 48
The opening image today comes from September, 2013, the ornate façade of the Cotton Exchange building in downtown Savannah, Georgia. I couldn’t begin to tell you the names of architectural styles, and I’m very much in favor of artistic efforts coming after full functionality has been established (having moved too much furniture into someone’s idea of