Tag: How To
Article: Basic Tech: Photo Security
Every photographer should take backups seriously. Unlike a crashed hard drive, photos aren’t replaceable.
Article: HDR Is The Question
You’re reading this article because you want to learn more about high-dynamic-range photography. Cool. HDR photography rocks. ...
Article: Exposure Rescues
A confession: I’ve made every photo mistake in the book. But, hey, I’ve been at this game for 331⁄3 years.
Article: Master Depth Of Field
Depth of field (DOF) seems like a pretty straightforward thing, right?
Article: Haute Shot
They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Article: 10 Best New Camera Features
The early generations of digital cameras focused mainly on matching the quality, speed and performance that photographers had come to expect from their film cameras.
Article: 10 Top Portrait Tips
Since no single pose is perfect for every model, professional or otherwise, each person before your lens should be looked at individually to decide what to highlight and what to hide.
Article: 10 Tips For Better Travel Photos
Whether you’re headed to the big city nearby or across an ocean, shooting on location is a lot of fun, and full of photographic possibilities. These tips will help prepare you to make the most of your camera as you explore.
Article: Seeing The Big Picture
Panoramas usually are associated with sweeping landscapes, seascapes and cityscapes.
Article: HDR To The Rescue
I guess I could have entitled this column, “Ricky’s Believe It or Not!” but “Ripley’s Believe It or Not!” already has the corner on fascinating and intriguing stories—and has had that corner since I used to read the column of the same name in the Sunday...
Article: Master Your Camera Meter
Whether we shoot on auto or manual, we all share something in common: the TTL meter. It makes or breaks every exposure.
Article: Point-Of-View Photography
“Tom, what’s the main thing you think about when you’re shooting mountain biking?”
Article: A Way With People
David Stoecklein has a knack for putting people at ease and posing them naturally. When he walks onto a ranch or some other Western setting, he knows exactly what he has to do first.
Article: Flash Basics
An easy way to get started is to get a piece of foam board about 2x3 feet in size. This is a readily found size, and it’s small enough to easily use. Have someone hold it, or clamp or tape it to something on one side of your subject. Then use your...
Article: Fast Photo Galleries
Creating a good image gallery doesn’t require any special expertise. The process has become as simple as only a few clicks with premade, professional-looking web gallery templates and optimized web formatting.
Article: Wedding Rescues
When it comes to personal photographs, some of the most important images are those taken on a wedding day. That puts pros, as well as weekend wedding photographers, under a lot of pressure to get the shot.
Article: Slideshows 2.0
Creating a good slideshow isn’t just about putting together a group of shots. How those pictures relate and interact can make a big difference. ...
Article: Manage Your Photo Library
Make image management the first step in your workflow, and you’ll free yourself to spend more time doing the more interesting digital darkroom tasks.
Article: Auto FX Mystical Tint Tone And Color 2.0
Ever wonder how the pros create the cool photo effects you see on billboards and advertisements?
Article: Awaken The Artist Within
The Beatles were wonderfully talented musicians and songwriters, creating original music that seems to never go out of style. On occasion, however, the Fab Four got a little help from their friends—friends who included music icons such as Eric Clapton...
Article: Practical HDR
Sooner or later, a photographer will run into the brick wall of the limitations of the digital camera sensor. Sensors today are very good, but they’re incapable of capturing the full range of tonality—from extreme shadow to bright highlights—that our...
Article: Gel The Light
Early in my career, I assisted numerous studio photographers to learn more about lighting. I wanted to master the secrets of capturing those stunning portraits and technical location shots. I soon realized two important things were happening in...
Article: Taking Stock
If making money from your passion for photography has crossed your mind, there has never been a better time. The microstock boom has made it easier than ever for even casual photographers to sell images on the side and grow from there.
Article: The Fine Art of Travel Photography
Beautiful landscapes and townscapes, as well as powerful environmental portraits and photo essays, can be obtained by anyone with a camera, a concept and the desire to do so. But how does one transcend the “I was here” imagery that’s often associated...
Article: How Autofocus Works
There are a lot of different technologies that go into the design of digital cameras, and one of the most powerful is a camera’s autofocus system. There are two kinds of systems in use today: contrast-based and phase detection, both of which can be f...
Article: Classic Black & White
In an over saturated world, the elegant, timeless appeal of black-and-white is in its simplicity. To get frame-worthy results, with a beautiful range of tones, you don’t have to be a student of the Zone System—but you do need to start with a proper...
Article: You Are Here
Martin Schall isn’t a professional photographer. You probably can’t learn from him how to photograph architecture, or how to take better travel photos, or even how to get published. Yet he does all these things amazingly well. The main thing you can...
Article: From Flat To Fab
This is a bad news/good news story—one with a happy ending. This past November, I had the opportunity to travel to the bottom of the world to photograph emperor penguins. It was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime. I planned this trip to Antarctica f...
Article: The Gritty Portrait
“Can you hang on a little longer?” I ask my friend, Patrick, as he leans off the vertical rock face. “Just a few more shots, and I should have it.”
Article: Pro Tips: Demystifying Image Resizing
Depending on how we want to use an image, we often need to create new copies at different resolutions. You might be making your image smaller for use on the web or increasing the resolution to make a larger print.
