AlienBees Studio Lights
For the best combination of quality and price, it is hard to beat AlienBees studio lights. I’ve been using AlienBees in my studio (and on location) for 6 years, and like so many other photographers, I’ve been singing their praises. It would be hard to find the same quality for less money.
Arca-Swiss compatible “L-bracket” and tripod head
Mounting a camera onto the screw on top of a tripod head is time consuming. Doing it in the dark when your hands are cold is annoying. Once the camera is mounted, if you flop the camera over to the side to take a vertical photo, the camera tries to rotate on the screw. To provide a solution, all kinds of “quick release systems” have been created. Some of them work quite well, some not so well. Most systems have a weakness of one kind or another.
Ball Head with Clamp, Really Right Stuff BH-3
The short list.
3-Way Tripod heads:
Manfrotto 056 3D Junior Head (replaces 3025)
Manfrotto 3025
Manfrotto 115 3D Super Junior Head (replaces 3028)
Manfrotto 410 Junior Geared Head
Ball Heads:
Slik Pro Ballhead 800
Kirk Enterprises BH-3
Kirk Enterprises BH-1
Really Right Stuff BH-40
Really Right Stuff BH-55
Umbrella, flash, and flash bracket on a tripod.
Photographers are always looking for ways to soften the light when doing portraits. The light from an accessory flash can be quite harsh so there are a wide range of modifiers to soften the light for more pleasing portraits. Here are my three favorites.
Looking for a tripod? Choose wisely. Other than a camera and a good lens, nothing can make a bigger difference in your photography than a good tripod. This is the place to find information, recommended models, and links to more information.
It is best to buy your tripod legs and tripod head separately. The best brands are interchangeable so you can match the legs you want with the tripod head that you want, even if they are from different companies.
Is it a great deal? Or is it a rip-off? You are searching online for a good price and you come across a terrific deal. Are you about to get burned? There are ways you can tell.
Gorillapod
There are a lot of practical and inexpensive gifts for photographers. Here is a nice list in order of approximate cost from $4 to $80. All of these items can be found at my photography store (powered by Amazon.com with Amazon’s terrific ordering, shipping, guarantee, and service). Most of the items below are in the Photo Goodies section. Prices do fluctuate so the prices below are approximate.
Adobe Elements 11, Lightroom 4, and Photoshop CS6
Your photos will look their best if you optimize them with some good image editing software.
Short list:
Adobe Photoshop Elements 11 or 10
Adobe Photoshop CS6 or CS5
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 or 3
The lab you choose and the kind of file you send to your lab can make a big difference in the quality of print you get back. How do you pick a good online photo lab? How do you get the best results from your lab? What color space should you use for your digital files and how do you convert your files to the right color space? How big a print can you make from your digital files?
Just a few of the many beautiful calendars in my photography store.
Inspiration is one of the keys to better photography, and beautiful calendar images are a great source of inspiration for the whole year. This is the place to be if you are looking for beautiful calendars for yourself (or for the photographer in your life). I picked an extensive selection of beautiful calendars for my photography store (which is powered by Amazon.com).
Remembering all of those who have served and are serving in the Armed Forces of the United States of America.
Digital Photography Exposure for Dummies
Looking for a great gift for someone who loves photography? Digital Photography Exposure for Dummies is a great gift for anyone who wants to improve their photography. Several ratings and review highlights follow below. Details about the book’s contents are in this article and you can order it at a discount at Amazon.com.
OSU’s Stone Lab Photo Workshop, 2012
Next year’s nature photography workshop on Lake Erie’s Gibraltar Island will be August 9-11, 2013. Mark your calendar now. Join us next summer at OSU’s Stone Laboratory for a fun, action packed, informative, and inspirational weekend! Some preliminary information is on this page at JimDoty.com. The Stone Lab site has not been updated with next year’s information.
They are different, and the iPhone 5 camera is definitely faster, but is the image quality better? That may depend on how you like your low light images to look. Do you prefer sharp and noisy, or a smoother with image detailed blurred? Read this review.
Landscape and Nature Photography by Jim Doty
Update, October 5: The workshop will be from 1:00 – 5:00 pm, one hour longer than originally planned.
I will be doing a photography workshop October 6, 2012 from 1:00 – 4:00 pm in Calgary, Alberta Canada. Thanks to the sponsoring organization, there is no charge for this workshop!
Point Iroquois Lighthouse, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula
Fall color will soon be sweeping the country. To make the most of it, you want to be at the right place at the right time. With some help from the internet, I will help you find the best fall color locations and arrive at the peak of the season
Bill Biggart’s final photograph. He was killed when the second World Trade tower collapsed on top of him. He was 53 years old.
Bobcat, Before and After a Tonality Adjustment
With the right software, you can do amazing things. There are some lighting situations where it is almost impossible, and certainly not practical, to get the correct white balance setting in the camera. This bobcat photo is an example. The best, fastest, and simplest solution is to get the right while balance setting after the fact using software like Adobe Camera Raw (ACR). A few minutes work with ACR can make a huge difference in the look of your photo.
Bumble Bee and Flowers
There are a lot of apps that claim to jazz up your iPhone and Android photos. A few of them will actually do wonderful things to your photos. If you want to turn some of your photos into “paintings”, there is a great app that will do that for you.
Nature Photography by Jim Doty
Ohio State University is again offering the photography workshop “Capturing the Wonder of the Outdoors”. Spend a fun and exciting weekend on Lake Erie’s Gibraltar Island while learning to take your outdoor photography to the next level. The workshop is August 10-12, 2012 and there is still time to register.
Jim Cathey Comes Home
This evocative, Pulitzer Prize winning photo by Todd Heisler has been widely shared on the internet. Jim Sheeler’s deeply moving story that accompanies the photo (a Pulitzer Prize winning article) isn’t nearly so widely known. His article follows. Heisler and Sheeler both worked for the Rocky Mountain News at the time.
Lightning over Yukon
The unique photo above was taken during a thunderstorm over Yukon Oklahoma. The view is looking west on old U.S. 66, “the Mother Road”. You can see the lighted sign over the “Yukon’s Best Flour” mill. The sign is no longer on, so the Friends of Yukon are raising funds to relight the sign. To support this project, I am donating 20% of all sales of my Yukon Oklahoma prints to relight the sign.
War of 1812 Ceremony
When doing photographic coverage of events, it is important to do some closeup portraits of people involved in the event. I always look for participants with interesting faces.
Thomas Jefferson by Rembrandt Peale, 1800
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.â€
From the Declaration of Independence, signed July 4, 1776. Written by Thomas Jefferson (1762-1826). 3rd US President (1801-09).
More images (including Thomas Jefferson’s original draft and George Washington’s personal copy) and the complete text follows the break.
The Strip, Las Vegas with Fireworks
You can point your camera at the sky in auto exposure and autofocus modes and fire away whenever you see a burst of fireworks, but for the best quality photos, it helps to know a few tricks of the trade. It’s easy when you know what to do.
Caribou, image circle, sensor sizes
What is a “field of view” crop on a digital camera? What difference does it make if your camera is full frame, or has a field of view crop? It makes a BIG difference, so I just updated my illustrated article on the digital field of view crop. It will help you understand how to work with your lenses and how to chose lenses that will work best with your camera (and a warning about lenses that won’t work with, or could even damage some cameras).
Kristina, portrait on a covered front porch
On a sunny day, a covered porch can be ideal for portrait photography, especially if it is facing south. A covered porch gives you nice soft light which is ideal for portraits.
National Geographic’s Kurt Mutchler, Executive Editor, Photography
OK, admit it. If you are serious about your photography, you would like to see one of your photos in National Geographic. Sadly, the odds of that are about as good as they are for starting in an NBA basketball game. So the next best thing is to meet one of National Geographic’s photo editors. That dream came true for me last week.
Fountain Kiss, Bicentennial Park
I was working on my last photo of the day for the “Picture Today, Inspire Tomorrow” project on May 15 at ADAY.org (more info here). When I planned my day, I wanted to end up at the fountain at the new Bicentennial Park in Columbus, Ohio. It is a great place to take pictures. As I visualized the image ahead of time, children would be playing at the fountain, creating blurry silhouettes. I already have a “children in the fountain” photo in my files, but all photos had to be taken on May 15.