PhotographyBB Number 6

This month's PhotographyBB (a free online photography magazine who's quality seems to get better every month) is jam packed full of goodness! It starts off with an article about developing film, talks about black and white, takes you to Australia and then hits the digital darkroom when it turns to an article about Adobe's Lightroom. I think this is probably the best issue yet, and I really haven't started reading.

Chromasia Photoshop Tutorials

Looks like The Nightingale's (of Chromasia fame) new Photoshop tutorial is up. It's titled "LAB Color mode: part two" and can be found here. Since it's part two, you might also be interested in part one.

I haven't actually checked any of these out, but the sample, on Tonal Range and the Curves Tool looks very detailed and well done. I'll have to read in more detail later. Thoughts? Are they worth the money?

Everyone's favorite newsletter Photojojo has written an article that should clear up most of the questions about What the Hell is the Unsharp Mask?

New PhotographyBB Issue (Issue 4)

Issue 4 of the online photgraphy magazine PhotographyBB is out and I've promised them I'd read it all this time. The articles in the past issues that I have read have been of great quality and on interesting topics, so when I see stuff like:

Regarding this recent release, Dave Seeram - Editor and Publisher says, “Issue 4 is here and fully stocked on our digital shelves! Although we had to delay this month’s issue by one week, this month’s issue is by far our best issue to date! This month we’re taking it to the next level by including photographic shooting techniques, a trip to Vancouver, and even more tutorials than last month, including Photoshop, Elements, and even a Dreamweaver (for the photographer) tutorial!”

in the press release for issue 4, I know for sure that there is good stuff contained within the digital pages.

Now, if only I had a super fast color printer and ink was dirt cheap, I could start reading it on the bus this morning...

EDIT: Incomprehensible dribble fixed.

Gear Safety While Traveling

Matt Mullenweg, a founding developer of WordPress (this blog being one of the only in the world not powered by it), and photo hobbyist, has recently been a victim of camera theft from checked baggage.

CameraPorn has a bunch of tips for keeping your equipment safe while traveling.

David Bergman on Workflow

I recently had the chance to see, renowned concert/sports photographer, David Bergman talk about how he uses Aperture to cull unwanted images and enhance and correct the selects from a shoot. Surprisingly, his daily workflow is not much different than what I have come up with, aside from the fact that I don't use Aperture (mostly because of the fact that it will not run on my Powerbook G4) and he has way more photos and selects to deal with. However, when I had a beta copy of Lightroom (which did run on my Powerbook), it is what I found to work quite well.

Anyway, the basic workflow is the following:

1. Import your entire shoot and add metadata to all the images. copyright info, short summary perhaps of the shoot. This is useful for quick searches through the library later in life. The copyright information, obviously can just save some legal hassle later.
2. Glance at every photo and give it a 1 star rating if it's something that might have potential.
3. Filter out your view to only shots that have 1 star. By this time, you've probably cut the number of shots down by at least half, if not more.
4. Relook at the 1 star images and give it a 2nd star if and only if it's worth spending more time on. You can use a bit more time to decide this, and for similar shots select only the best of them.
5. Filter out your view to only shots that have 2 stars. Now, here is where David's approach is a bit different. He relooks and filters to 3 stars and reserves 4 and 5 stars for exceptionally good photos he wants to use in his portfolio. I on the other hand am not on the same caliber as him and would have next to no shots left if I went to 3 stars, let alone 4 or 5.
6. Correct

After you make your initial selects, which should be a small fraction of the images you shot initially, it's time to make some corrections, crop and perform other edits (in Photoshop or wherever). The next part, for me, is bad because it allows for too much experimenting. For David, his formula works great and it's something I might try when I get some more computing power to power the free copy of Aperture Apple gave me for attending David's talk (Thanks Apple!).

David has sort of a set formula for the sliders and tools he touches and hardly ever strays from it, but makes sure to always correct the white balance first. Then he'll adjust the exposure as needed, possibly warm up the temperature a bit (on the photo, his office is air conditioned) and then turn on the visual display of highlights and black points. He'll then decide what's appropriate for the scene and use the recovery tool to get back some highlights and similarly with the black points.

At this point, the initial image should look pretty good and he'll decide whether or not he wants to use the settings from this picture as the settings for others and if so he'll apply them to the others and continue on. He'll then crop and, if necessary, add a slight vignette.

My correction flow is a lot different, and it's the part of his presentation that I took the most away from. It's possible to get great photographs by doing very little extra work. I used to go through all the sliders and experiment, but I now know it's not necessary, so I'll just not touch them.

You'd never think such a simple flow would work, but it seems to, and I saw him perform it right before my very eyes.

How to Create Photoshop Actions

Got an old pair of eye glasses and some electrical tape? Well, then make a cheap kinda sorta fisheye.

Wedding Photography Equipment

Photo.net has a comprehensive guide about what you really need to photograph a wedding. If you're a serious photog you probably already have at least some of it. But this of course isn't all that you need to be a successful wedding photographer—you still need to learn some skills.

Photojojo Forums - How to take the foto of 'that stranger'

How to take the foto of 'that stranger' is a topic in Photojojo's forums about being scared to do street photography. There are quite a few tips, which I will think about the next time I go out. There are a few obvious ones like this post by ben-s:

If people do ask questions, be nice to them, and perhaps offer them a free print or an electronic copy. If they're not happy with that, offer to delete the image. I've never had to delete anything yet, but I have sent out a few free prints and a few electronic copies. People are often quite pleased to have a picture of themselves.

And then there are a few tips that user alexlinsker suggests that struck my attention:

Another way is to casually position yourself so one person's body is between you and the person you're photographing. The person "between" you can be a bit off to the side and out of frame.

and my favorite:

... Feet are a big unconscious indicator of where your attention is pointing. Point both your feet away from the person and at something you might be interested in. You can even walk that way after you take the picture.

Also, remember that you need a release if you plan to sell those images, unless of course it's for editorial use!

This post, Improve Your Photos in 60 Seconds, takes a lot longer to read than 60 seconds, but the tips in there may just improve your work.

Getting Exposure from Flickr

It's no joke that Flickr is popular, and with it being popular is a great place to be found. Thiru Murugan has posted 5 Tips to Get Into "Flickr Explore."

Twelve Essential Photographic Rules from PopPhoto.

Photographing Autumn

Ritz Camera has posted two articles related to photographing this autumn season. Check out How to Photograph Football (American Football), and How to Photograph Autumn Color.

How to Photograph Bugs and Other Insects

With summer and storms still to come, there are great subjects that we often miss. PopPhoto has a good article up about How to Photograph Bugs and Other Insects. Get out your macro lenses! (OK, you don't really need one, but hey use it if you have it.)

Through the Window Photographs

T3 The Gadget Website gives us 5 tips for taking pictures through a window. I can't tell you how many times I've tried to take photos out of my window only to realize that I'm getting a little bit of a reflection. I've since sort of figured out how to mitigate the reflections, but now I have some more advice to try out.

10 "Most" Common Mistakes in Photography

Perhaps the 10 most common photography mistakes. Personally I don't think there is any scientific fact to justify "most" common, hence the quotes. All joking aside, the list of mistakes are common and perhaps knowing and avoiding them can give you a better ratio of keepers.

Point and Shoot Digital Photography Wedding Tips

The Wedding Photography Blog has an article with tips about taking pictures at a wedding with a point and shoot digital camera. I think the tips are right on for many types of events, not just weddings. Stated is that you should have lots of storage so that you can focus on happenings around you—not on deleting the boring stuff. Also of note—get in close and don't use the digital zoom. Check out the article for more tips.

Top Photography Blogs

If you're just learning about digital photography (or film) in your spare time, as I am, or are a full time studio shooter, traveler, or other paid camera-slinger you undoubtably subscribe to some photography magazines. I for one keep getting Outdoor Photographer even though my subscription ran out; thanks! I also subscribe to ShutterBug. I find that ShutterBug is insightful for thinking about new techniques and equipment to buy, whilst Outdoor Photographer is mostly just inspiring with some sprinkles of technique. Both magazines, I think are geared more towards learning than say, American Photo or any of those artsy or journalism ones. (Note: I love "artsy" photography, I just don't subscribe.)

However, the purpose of this blog isn't necessarily to point out good magazines that you can get in print, although I guess that might not be a bad idea for a future article about off-screen learning, but in fact it is about the numerous resources of the World Wide Web. There are many great blogs out there that update their content much more regularly than I, and in fact with much more insightful and useful tips and articles. That isn't to say that you should stop reading Photub of course. If you've been a reader of Photub for any length of time, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

The blogs that I am listing in this post, are blogs that I consider great additions to your RSS subscriptions—those blogs that probably have enough new content for books or bi-monthly magazines in themselves:

In no particular order...

1. The Online Photographer: The Online Photographer packs a wallop of new commentary, reviews, techniques and personal adventures into a blog that is updated fairly frequently.
2. Photocritic: Perhaps one of my favorite blogs, is this one. The authors always have something interesting to share, and do a good job presenting it. The critiques that are occassionally done are quite helpful to new and upcoming photographers, and the DIY attitude helps create some really useful and fun tools. Of note is the DIY Pringles can macro lens, that I have been wanting to try out.
3. Strobist: Everything you'd ever want or need to know about effective flash photography is right here in this blog. Literally courses of information are contained on the pages of this blog. It's also not all about flash photography. Consider the recent series about Flickr and what it can do for your photography career. Insightful articles, interesting topics and amazing techniques make this truely one of the best photography blogs on the internet.
4. Photojojo: While not really a blog per se, Photojojo's unique style and unique media (email newsletter), make it in a class of it's own. I include it in this list because they do have an RSS feed, making it "blog like." I have just one complaint about Photojojo and that is that they often seem to post stuff late, after it's already been posted elsewhere. Nevertheless, Photojojo has knocked my socks off more than a few times with interesting ideas, it's creative writing style and overall growth.
5. Digital Photography School: Anyone looking for tips can always find something at DPS. Choose a "Random Tip" or read them all. It's easily becoming an encyclopedia of techniques, buying tips, etc. for the beginner, casual student and the advanced amateur.
6. Andy Frazer's Night Photography Blog: Taking pictures at night can yeild some extremely interesting results, but not many will give you insight on creating breathtaking images at night without the flash. Andy Frazer does. You'll see lots of examples of compelling night imagery, if nothing else.
7. After Capture: The only site listed here, that actually is a monthly publication, actually has a decent blog. The blog talks, interestingly enough, about post production of your images. Becomming a "post production prince" might not happen overnight, but it'll probably happen faster with the reading of some of the articles here.
8. DIYPhotography.net: Face it, photography equipment is expensive, and we see time and time again, that a cheap light tent provides excellent results. DIYPhotography.net is all about creating cheap equipment to aide in the creation of great photographs. It's a wonderful collection and continues to grow.

The web is full of great content, and with RSS being used by nearly everyone, there certainly isn't any reason (other than time) that you can't be informed of the latest photography happenings, techniques and ideas every 15 or 20 minutes. Surely there are other great blogs out there that I did not address, but these are the ones I read on a semi-daily basis. If you think your blog should be on this list, please submit it for review, and I'll take a look.

Using Center-Weighted Metering

The Case for Center Weighted Metering, discusses when you'd want to use center weighted metering in your shots.

Open Source Photography

Being a software developer and free software (tidbit: free and open source are not the same thing, but this is a photography blog, not a software blog) enthusiast, I can't help but laugh at Open Source Photography. Not because of it's content, or it's intention, but rather because of it's name. Open Source Photography's goal is to empower photographers to use open source tools to do the work they need to do. The project is promising and I look forward to seeing it's content increase, but I wish the name were different. I don't think their intention is to provide images that you are free to modify and or distribute, as is the normal case in open source software, and that makes their name a bit misleading.

Someone might find this useful, Focal Length and Aperture for the Photography Novice

Product Photography How Tos

Tabletop Studio has a comprehensive guide to product photography. Topics include, flowers, coins and jewelry as well as many others.

A short guide on photo composition.

Morguefile Classroom

When I said earlier today that regular posting would resume soon, I didn't expect to find such a great resource within Morguefile's classroom. However, upon checking it out, I discovered Jodie Coston's 10 lesson course.

The course starts off talking about composition, proceeds through to basics and then tackles portraits, studio lighting and product photography. Great examples and illustrations provide you with the a visual guide to the topics being discussed, and to top it off there's a discussion board for each lesson, which I must admit I haven't tested and it seems to be fairly old (2004ish). However, even if the forums aren't active, or disabled the course is still good.

Cleaning Digital Cameras

Not having experience with cleaning cameras, I don't think I'd allow myself at this point to clean my digital camera, but if you are inclined, Cleaning Digital Cameras is probably a resource you can use.

Fred Parker's Ultimate Exposure Computer is a guide for nature photographers (but works in general... ) for computing exposures.

An Insider's Look at Food Photography

An old article, but of course still relevant has a look at Food Photography, and provides insights and tips for producing quality work.

As a side note, "There is a law in the U.S.A. regarding truth in advertising. It requires that advertisements about food show the actual food item that a consumer would be able to buy and eat. " I don't know about the rest of you, but that fast food burger looked a bit better on the menu than my tray.

Eliminating Noise in the Ricoh at ISO 1600

I've discussed the Ricoh GR Digital here before, and found a great little photo tip for those of you struggling with the noise levels at ISO 1600. "The best way to set the camera up is to have the lowest saturation you can set and the highest contrast."