With so much exciting stuff going on in the field of modern photography it sure is great that we have Toad Hollow Photography searching all corners of the internet looking for the best tutorials, special features and great photography to share here with enthusiasts from all corners of the world. This weeks list is full of a wide variety of topics and photographs, featuring the work of some of the best photographers and writers working in the field today. We really hope you enjoy checking out this list as much as the Toad did himself in creating it for you. TUTORIALS How to Perfect Your Indoor Portraits Using Mirrors finding new ways of taking advantage of things that exist in your natural world can be a wonderful creative spark that takes you on brand new journeys with your photography. This terrific tutorial is posted here on Light Stalking, and it discusses how the use of mirrors, both big and small, can produce incredible compositional opportunities that create very unique images. 100 Best Photoshop Tutorials (From Basic to Advanced) learning how to take advantage of all that Photoshop has to offer, whether you are just beginning or have been an avid user for years, can be a large task that seems to never end. This terrific article shares some of the very best Photoshop tutorials out there on a wide range of topics with something in here that is sure to be useful for people working with this powerful production tool at any level. Simple Web Tool Teaches Beginners How to Use Manual Settings on a DSLR well done infographics can be a powerful learning tool inasmuch as they provide their lesson in an easy to understand graphical format. This interactive infographic is a powerful tool that can help everyone understand the relationship between ISO, aperture, shutter speed and exposure in a fun presentation. The Weird Tricks Food Photographers Use to Fake Delicious Looking Meals food photography is a thing all unto itself, and here we learn some of the secrets that photographers in the field apply to their workflow to get those amazing, mouth-watering results. The kicker here is that most of the shots involve food that is not that tasty, and in some cases is downright inedible. How to Set Your White Balance for the Most Common Types of Streetlights managing white balance can be a daunting undertaking for many photographers who don't have a lot of experience with it, particularly in settings that have a wide variety of light color in them. This great article discusses the various types of lights found on many of today's streets and shares some strategies on how best to manage these situations for great imagery. How to shoot long exposure timelapse with direct sunlight in the middle of the day creating terrific timelapse videos often requires long exposure settings to create a smooth and interesting presentation. This video tutorial takes us through the process of using a ND filter to drop the shutter speed, allowing for silky smooth timelapses that are pleasing to view and enjoy. Panning technique: How to photograph moving subjects a very brief and high level guide that takes you through some of the basics behind the techniques used to capture stunning panned photographs. The blending of sharp subjects against a dynamic backdrop full of motion blur is a technique that in some cases takes practice to perfect, and the results are truly stunning shots that capture the imagination. SPECIAL FEATURES What a shot! 24 amazing sports photos let's head on over to CNN to see what great photos they are featuring as amazing sports photographs from recent sporting events. These terrific candid shots capture fast-paced life in a split-second, giving us all a glimpse into some of the things that happen so quickly they are for the most part missed. Photographing the Famous Abandoned Church Full of 'Ghosts' an amazing series of photographs is shared in this blog post that focuses on ghostly characters purposefully created to help with a fundraising initiative in an old and weathered church. The incredibly figures are posed realistically inside the building, creating a very eerie feel that are perfectly captured in this set. Nos deux regards au Muse de Minralogie (Mines ParisTech) | Nos deux regards Mathias Lucas and Anne-Laure share their unique versions of photographs taken at the same place at the same time in this twin set of blog posts. These extensive catalogs of photographs focus on a macro look at gems and minerals with extremely purposeful compositions that reveal a side of nature that is often missed by most. Photographer captures incredible light pillars that look like something out of a Sci-Fi show an amazing natural phenomenon creates stellar light pillars in the night sky that are perfect for out-of-this-world photography. This incredible light display is captured in still and video images, revealing a side of nature that is apparently quite rare, and utterly delightful. Photographer runs epic photo shoot to recreate Beauty and the Beast with his daughter there are some seriously mad Photoshop skills shown off in this feature presentation, one created by a father for his daughter as a sign of the love he has for her. He first captured shots from various locations and then did a special photo shoot with the girl, bringing it all together into Photoshop where a magical world came out of his digital darkroom. GREAT PHOTOGRAPHY R I S E a beautiful classically styled white clad church with a red roof stands in a field as the sun rises in the distance in this amazing shot from Timothy Poulton. The eerie clouds in the sky add a dash of drama to the scene, creating the perfect natural conditions for this shot to come to life on all our screens. Bow Lake Icefields Parkway, Banff National Park, Alberta Len Saltiel shows us all exactly why reflections can be such powerful compositional elements in landscape photography in this beautiful shot that features the rugged Rocky Mountains in Canada. In this shot we find the mountains perfectly mirrored in the soft reflection of a lake in the foreground, finishing off the image just perfectly. White On Blue for those who love nature photographs, this is a real must-see shot in this week's list, coming to us from Pasi Kaunisto. The stark white feathers of the national bird of Finland find sharp contrast against the deep blues of the frozen lake they stand upon. Larry the Mute Swan Anne McKinnell shares a poignant series of photographs of a beautiful swan the often graced her with it's presence at the campsite she frequents during the summer months here on Vancouver Island. Each of the photos is absolutely beautiful, showcasing the magnificent beauty these birds behold upon those who appreciate them. Sadly it seems the swan recently passed, so this series now becomes a memory book dedicated to him. Rocky coast of Liguria a moody picture is presented here by Maxim K. featuring a ragged coastline sitting undercover of a layer of wispy clouds that add to the overall feel of the setting. Wonderful details in the rock faces that look out towards the ocean reveals a look at the splendor of nature as it carves out the cliffs through countless years of pounding surf. Whispering Gallery Michael Criswell does it once again, sharing his terrific photography skills in the form of an architectural study that reveals the true scale and scope of the interior of the Texas State Capitol building in downtown Austin Texas. In this shot, Michael uses a fisheye lens to capture the massive rotunda from floor to ceiling, with incredible details found at every level to draw the viewer into the frame. The Lion City Elia Locardi captures a stunning cityscape photo of a major city in Singapore during the blue hour. The lights from the building twinkle in the amazing architectural features of this incredible city, anchored by a bridge that guides the viewer into the heart of the city in the distance. Quality Time with Uncle prepare yourself to be utterly delighted in this pair of photographs from Laurie MacBride who shares these shots of a newly born fawn playing with it's uncle. Both photographs featured in this post are heartwarming, showing off the obvious love these wonderful animals have for each other. Lighthouse keeper searched incredible drama and fury that can only be found in the ravages of nature graces our screens in this epic photograph from Jasna Matz. As the furious waters of the ocean pound upon the shores in this shot, they almost completely envelope a tall lighthouse in the frothing and roiling waters that are the domain of Poseidon himself. The greatest church in the world the inside of the Vatican in Rome comes to full life in this stunning image from Jim Nix. The space inside is so huge that even with people milling about on the ground level, incredible details in the fine architecture are revealed for those who are inclined to spend a little time with the shot exploring it visually. Cute Baby Fox if you have a heart and love all the creatures of the natural world, prepare for a true ahhh moment with this photograph of a wonderful tiny fox baby as it explores the world it finds itself inhabiting. This delightful portrait was captured by Roeselien Raimond in perfect natural light conditions, creating a splendid frame and setting for this adorable little fox to steal the show. sky, ocean and ancient rock a castle that was once a home many, many years ago stands sentry on the cliffs of Northern Ireland in this wonderful photograph from Frank King. The ruins of the castle create a distinct dichotomy against the beautiful surroundings that once inspired those who were lucky enough to live here. 6th Ave the convergence of that which is static alongside the light trails of a fast moving train is the prime focus of this terrific shot that was processed with a cinematic feel to it. Ryan Millier captures this terrific natural dichotomy deep underground in the tunnels of the city of New York where the subways live. Hitting the Road a small, tight-knit bear family frolics in the natural setting found in the far north of Alaska in this wonderful image from Ron Niebrugge. In the foreground we find a pair of cubs playfully wrestling as the bears mom stands watch in the background, producing a heartwarming image that helps us all to realize how special these amazing creatures truly are. CRYSTAL E Y E the repeating patterns of a helical staircase create a composition that is mesmerizing in the flow of geometric shapes and lines, as seen and photographed by Romina Kutlesa here. The post-production techniques utilized to finish this piece add a great deal to the overall feel this picture exhibits, creating a near-abstract image that is sure to be the source of fascination for many. Fine China the ghosts of those who used to work in this fine china factory are captured in a frame in this urbex themed shot from Michael Criswell. Stacks and stacks of molds are still in storage in this long forgotten complex, creating a mosaic that creates a strong sense of artistic tension. Reflections in Abu Dhabi this shot embodies the notion of artistic tension with a few of its compositional elements, including a terrific reflection of the grand architecture that is visible in a still pool that sits in the foreground. Further amazement is found by those who look deeper into this shot by Gonzalo N. Bendito, where a lone woman walking across the scene delivers a strong sense of scale and context to the shot. Castle in Clouds fairy tale castles are wonderful photography subjects, as shown in this terrific shot taken by Kilian Schnberger that overlooks a massive medieval looking structure. Thick clouds linger and flow all around the old castle here, adding to the sense of magic and wonder found in this great setting. The post 30 Photography Tutorials and Links That You Will Love appeared first on Light Stalking.
0 Comments
Discover why North Carolina is a world-class underwater photography destination for wrecks, sharks, and marine life Without a doubt, Lightroom is an extremely powerful editor. So much in fact, that I can edit an entire wedding without ever leaving the program. The main things I find myself doing that cause me to leave Lightroom and enter Photoshop are multiple exposures, liquefying, more advanced cloning and healing, and adding certain overlays. What Advanced Lightroom Effects from Lens Distortions does is make it so I no longer need Photoshop to add these overlays. It saves me time from switching back and forth between programs and having to create multiple copies of the same image. [ Read More ] Brandon Stanton, the photographer behind the wildly successful website-turned Facebook page-turned Best Selling Book "Humans of New York" surprised everyone today with a bombshell announcement. For the past 4 years, he's been quietly filming over 1,200 personal interviews with his portrait subjects, and he's turning those interviews into a HONY TV series starting next week. The series was created in conjunction with cinematographer Michael Crommett, and the official announcement and trailer went live just 20 minutes ago on the Humans of New York Facebook Page. "Early on I realized that video would add a deeper layer to Humans of New York. At the heart of all these posts are the conversations themselves," writes Stanton. "I'm often deeply moved by the people I meet. Or they make me laugh. Or they make me think. And I always do my best to recreate the experience through photos and words. But I always knew that video would provide the closest thing to 'actually being there.'" Inspired by this realization, he began filming interviews... many many interviews. But instead of posting them one day at a time as he has been doing with his photos, he held onto them in the hopes of creating something special down the line. Down the line has finally arrived. "My goal was not to make a television show based on Humans of New York. I wanted the television show to *be* Humans of New York," explains Stanton. "I think I came pretty close. And I think/hope you will love it." Watch the trailer for Humans of New York (The Series) at the top of this article, and then head over to the HONY Facebook Page for more info. The Series premiers next week on Facebook Watch. Drones have rapidly become powerful tools for photographers and filmmakers alike. Their ability to soar above a scene and give an entirely new perspective to our images makes them increasingly popular. With that popularity, however comes some negativity, some induced by some drone fliers themselves, others simply myths propagated by people that vehemently dislike the technology. Some of this negativity may put off some perspective buyers who would otherwise have bought into this amazing hobby. Today we are going to look at some of the myths and mistruths about flying drones. I will not delve too deeply in to legal matters as this will vary from country to country. I will however look at some of the more general misconceptions about drone flying. Drones Are UnreliableA quick look through Youtube is enough to scare any potential drone flyer away. Crashes, fly aways, bad designs. The thing is though, a lot of these videos are simply trying to go viral, to garner likes and of course make money. It's human nature that if something goes wrong people are going to post about it. However, what you are seeing is a very small exception to the many drone fliers that do not encounter problems. A drone is a complex sophisticated piece of equipment and must be treated as such. Many of the crashes and fly aways seen on video are caused by operator error. From simple things like not fully charging batteries and then flying to far away over water, to not attaching propellors correctly or not paying attention to the surroundings. Like flying a plane there are an important set of checklists to accomplish before, during and after flying. Stick to these and drones are incredibly reliable. Drones Can Be DangerousOf course they can. Rapidly spinning propellors, dead weights dropping from the sky even buzzing airliners on approach. All are issues that can happen and have happened. However most countries have a strict set of rules about drone flying. These include not flying over groups of people, busy roads, buildings. You must stay a set distance away from any airport and remain below a certain height, usually 120m or 400ft. The vast majority of people adhere to these rules and are responsible fliers. There are however a few idiots out there but they are increasingly being prosecuted for their actions. Personally I have no issue with a country requiring drone registration or with drone manufacturers geo-locking locations that are dangerous to fly in. There are still huge amounts of beautiful open spaces where you can fly a drone legally and safely. Drones Give Poor Image QualityCompared to your DSLR, yes the image quality will be poor. Compared to your iPhone or Android, the quality will be on a par with, if not better. However we are now beginning to see the advent of some very high quality sensors in affordable drones. The DJI Phantom 4 Pro and Advanced models are leading the way. They feature Sony 1 Exmoor sensors, the same as in the Sony RX series of advanced compacts. They can shoot 4K at up to 60fps with a 100mb bit rate. They also shoot 20mp RAW images and can auto bracket a 5 image sequence. Mounted on a gimbal the image quality can be superb. This of course is just the beginning, as drone technology improves so will their ability to carry more and more sophisticated cameras. Just like with the mirrorless revolution, DSLR quality in drones is just around the corner. Drones Invade PrivacyYes they can invade people's privacy. However there is a big difference between privacy in a private place and privacy in a public place. We all expect privacy in our own homes and the vast majority of drone fliers will not fly over people's property. However, if you are in a public, open location you have no right to privacy. A drone flying over a public park is no more invasive to privacy than a ground based photographer with a telephoto lens. He or she has every right to photograph you, it's down to the individual photographer if they do actually want to. The vast majority of times a drone flier will have no interest in photographing a person in a public place unless that person is doing something out of the ordinary. There is another side to this mistruth that is not often understood by non photographers. The vast majority of prosumer and consumer drones use very wide angle lenses. Typically 20-24mm focal length. Even a mere 20m meters away, a person looks very small, virtually unrecognisable in most drone shots. The days of 300mm f2.8 armed drones is a little way off yet. There is a lot of hate for drones from certain quarters out there. Much driven by ill informed news media who prefer clicks to facts. This in turn is picked up by people that need something to hate something directing their ignorance at drone fliers. As fliers our first duty is to be aware of the rules and regulations and the safety of our aircraft. If we do that, we we can rationally explain the rules to anyone that queries us. If that person refuses to listen, the best bet is to bring the drone home and fly another time. Personally I have never encountered any issues. The biggest problem I have is people are so interested in what I am doing that it can be distracting from the actual flying. Don't let myths and misinformation prevent you from joining what is a remarkably fun and creative pastime. More Resources on Drone Photography
The post 4 Persistant Myths About Drone Photography appeared first on Light Stalking. In the third episode of the ReEdit I return to Capture One Pro in order to show people how I tend to create images these days based on color channels and making subjects stand out more effectively by using said channels. And for this episode I went back into my archives and I sought out a photo from my Secret Order of the Slice Series. The photo is an ode to Quentin Tarantino's briefcase in the movie Pulp Fiction--and this time around I wanted to really tone down the excessive editing that I felt I did and instead just focus on creating a really good photo through the editing process in Capture One Pro. Download the Thrive Leafy Watercolor Design Kit, a lovely collection of illustrated design elements created by Lisa Glanz.Look at this beautiful collection of leafy watercolor illustrations! Created by Lisa Glanz as a useful design kit for your creative work, this set consists of 2 leafy frame shapes, 1 leafy border page frame, 1 pre-designed background, 1 leafy wreath, 1 organic border (step-and-repeat), 2 seamless patterns (original master tile included), 11 individual DIY elements, and 1 hand-painted paper background. The included PNG files can be opened with common photo editing software such as Adobe Photoshop you can get their latest version from the Adobe Creative Cloud website, just check it outhere. Based on natural handpainted watercolor paintings by Lisa Glanz, each element has been digitized in a high resolution. The transparent PNG files work great on every background. Using a striking color palette, this collection is a great choice for posters and invites as well as wedding stationery, branding projects, apparel, packaging, and so much more. The possibilities seem endless! For additional information, just follow the link below. You can get the entire kit here. You can download the set on Creative Market. The post Leafy Watercolor Illustrations Design Kit by Lisa Glanz appeared first on WE AND THE COLOR. Long exposure effects with video can create some very cool results. This particular video from cinematographer Dan Marker-Moore is a particularly good example of that. Dan's known for his outstanding time slice work, and very cool time related video effects. And in this video project for Toyota, he does not disappoint. It's a very interesting [] The post How to stretch and bend time with long exposure video effects appeared first on DIY Photography. One of the biggest problems that a lot of photographers have is the culling and editing process--but it's pretty simple to do in Adobe Lightroom. One of the biggest things that I tell people is to become vulnerable to their own photos. So in this episode of the ReEdit, I take around a half hour to cull down 83 images to somewhere in the 20s. Then I do another cull and bring that number down to 14. In the end, I chose 13 out of the 83. That's still a pretty high keeper rate and with 83 photos, I didn't need to overshoot at all. I didn't feel the need to and everything was simply working well. After this I do edits on the photos. Nat Geo Travel Photographer Award Winners, a snapshot of North Korea, Google's AI retouches photos in real time read about all this and more in our weekly roundup of photography news. 1. National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year Award WinnersNational Geographic just announced the winners of its Travel Photographer of the Year 2017 award. The winning images show the world in stunning ways, ranging from Landscapes to People photography. Check out the 500px profiles of Sergio Tapiro Velasco, Norbert Fritz, Andy Yeung and Hiromi Kano, a few of the winning photographers. Source: The Guardian 2. A snapshot of North Korea, in picturesDespite the difficulties and dangers involved in visiting North Korea as a photographer, a few brave artists face their fears to document the unique and almost surreal scenarios of Pyongyang. Raphael Olivier was one of those photographers, and he is now showcasing his impressive work from his trip. Check out a few of his photos below. Source: FStoppers 3. Which lens to buy when you're on a budgetBuying photography gear is a challenge for many photographers living on a budget. Luckily, not all good photography gear is expensive. The Phoblographer has put together a list of good lenses available for affordable prices. Read more on the lists for Nikon or Canon photographers. Source: The Phoblographer 4. New Google Algorithm retouches your photos in real timeA new system developed by Google and MIT engineers allows smartphones to process and retouch photos even before they are taken. The algorithms use machine learning to understand the settings of a set of 5,000 sample images and use that information to tweak your pictures in real time. John Barron, from Google, comments that This technology has the potential to be very useful for real-time image enhancement on mobile platforms. Source: Range Finder 5. Photos of markets around the worldFor travel photographers, marketplaces are a full of photo opportunities. 500px Associate Photo Editor Kristen Dobbin curated a gallery of her favorite photos of the most colorful and unique marketplaces around the globe. Check out the full gallery on 500px ISO. Source: ISO 6. Enhance your photography skills with the latest 500px classesReady to sharpen your photography skills? For the month of August, we will feature a series of new 500px Classes including Understanding Natural Light, Mastering the Art of Composition, Why Images Work, and Photoshop Compositing. Read more about the instructors and the class content on 500px ISO. Source: ISO Highlights from Editor's ChoiceThe post Photography News Roundup, August 4th appeared first on 500px ISO. |