If you want to master color in Photoshop, Dan Margulis is the best of the best. He is one of the first three persons to be named as a member of the Photoshop Hall of Fame. And the book to get is Professional Photoshop: The Classic Guide to Color Correction (5th Edition)
Jeff Schewe and Bruce Fraser on RAW Camera Files
If you aren’t shooting RAW files with your digital camera (as opposed to jpeg files), you should think about the advantages of shooting in RAW. Read the articles RAW vs JPEG Camera Files and The RAW vs JPEG Exposure Advantage at my photography web site.
A lot of the quality of your final image will be determined by what you do with your RAW files when you open them in Adobe Camera RAW (ACR).
How do you learn the basics of Photoshop before going on to the books I recommend in the MASTERING PHOTOSHOP series? Look at the books below. And why did I lump Photoshop together with digital photography? Because some of the basic and intermediate books cover both.
There are any number of good, basic and intermediate photoshop/photography books. Look for books by Tom Ang, Rick Sammon, Tim Grey, Martin Evening, Bruce Fraser, and Scott Kelby. Also worth reading are Deke McClelland, Barbara Obermeier, and Peter Bauer who authored the popular “Dummies” series of books for various versions of Photoshop.
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I have no idea how Michael Freeman can be a well traveled, international photographer and still find time to write so many terrific photography books. But somehow he manages to do both. I suspect he never sleeps. I imagine him creating images and writing books 24 hours a day, stopping only to eat once or twice a week!!
Is composition something that can be taught, or if it is innate? Probably a bit of both. It is hard to look at photographs by Frans Lanting, Art Wolfe, Galen Rowell, and Dewitt Jones without coming to the conclusion that they were born with some kind of magic sense of composition. On the the other hand, it is clear that photographers can improve dramatically with the right kind of guidance.
Flash, Off-Camera vs On-Camera
Off-camera flash can provide more pleasing light and a much more dramatic photograph than on-camera flash. Using two off-camera flash units provides even more dramatic lighting possibilities.
Portrait in Open Shade on a Sunny Day
People generally look best when you photograph them in soft light. That’s why studios bounce the studios lights off of big umbrellas or through big “soft boxes” to widen and soften the light. The umbrella or soft box mimics the nice soft light you get on a “cloudy bright” day when there are just enough clouds to soften the light and minimize shadows.
Michael Fulks, the publisher of Apogee Photo Magazine, wrote at an excellent review of Digital Photography Exposure for Dummies in his magazine. Here’s the review:
Warren Stevens, Magic 106.3
Off-camera flash is so useful because it gives you a different look from the millions of photos that are taken with the flash on the camera. The light can come from any direction you choose, no matter where your camera is, and the latest technology makes automatic flash exposure quick and reliable.
Sony Alpha NEX-5N
Updated Dec. 26, 2011.
It’s that time of year with the holiday season approaching and I am already getting questions about which digital cameras I recommend. The camera lists below will point you to the highest rated models, along with information and advice. The lists will be updated throughout the holiday season as new, highly rated cameras become available.
The new Canon EOS-1D X
Canon introduced the new EOS 1D X today, the new flagship, pro level camera that replaces both the EOS 1Ds Mark III and the EOS 1D Mark 4. It is an 18.1 Megapixel, full-frame DSLR with a high-precision 61-point AF system, an ISO range that’s expandable up to ISO 204,800, and a top shooting speed of 14 frames per second (fps). Details are here.
Warren Stevens, Magic 106.3, Columbus, Ohio.
If I am using flash for an environmental portrait, I usually prefer having the flash off of the camera. In this portrait of Warren Stevens (program director and mid-day air personality at Magic 106.3 FM in Columbus), the flash is above Warren and to his right, providing a nice semi side-lit photograph. On camera flash is flat and even. Getting the flash off of the camera and moving it to the side provides more shape and texture to the subject.
Sarah Gearino, Fitness Trainer
I’ve photographed people in a lot of different occupations, but this is the first time I’ve worked with a professional fitness trainer. Sarah Gearino (“Body Evolution by Sarah”) is taking on more clients and she wanted photos for her Web site (which is currently in the planning stages).
Aspen, Marshall Pass, Colorado
Fall color is sweeping the country. To make the most of it, you want to be at the right place at the right time. Fortunately, that’s not hard to do.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) released a list of the 13 most dangerous countries based on unsolved murders of photojournalists and weighted by population.
I first ran this post on the 5th anniversary of 9/11.
Photo by James Nachtwey for TIME magazine.
On this date, five years ago, we experienced a great national tragedy in the United States. Not only in the lives that were lost in the terrorist attacks, the families torn asunder, and the emergency responders who are suffering terrible health problems as a result of working at the scene – but also in the way we view ourselves and our world.
The photo essays linked below are a reminder of what we all went through on that fateful day.
Bill Biggart’s final photograph. He was killed when the second World Trade tower collapsed on top of him. He was 53 years old.
You can read the story about Bill Biggart’s last images and see an album of his last photos at The Digital Journalist.
You can see other 9-11 photo albums by Chip East, Peter Turnley, David Turnley, and Aris Economopoulos.
U.S. Flags. Westerville Ohio.
Jeremy Bruskotter and I were the instructors for a photography workshop at OSU’s Gibraltar Island this past weekend. One of the participants was using a MacBook Air as his travel laptop. What a delightful, featherweight machine. And his photos looked wonderful on the screen.
Matt – One Call Auto Mechanic
“Matt Dirty”, “Matt Clean” was Matt’s idea. He is the owner of One Call Auto Mechanic, and he asked me to do a set of “environmental portraits” of him at work (Matt Dirty), plus another set of portraits for his family (Matt Clean). In this post, I show you some of both, along with some photo tips and a few safety suggestions for this kind of shoot.
Wave, Tahiti Nui’s Western Shore
We were on the western shore of Tahiti Nui watching the the waves break on a reef, quite a ways from the beach. A strong wind was blowing from the beach out toward the waves, blowing a fine mist of water off the tops of the waves and out toward the Pacific. The waves themselves were a beautiful shade of blue and a nice contrast to the darker blue of the surrounding water. It was the blue of the waves and the fine mist blowing off the crest of the waves that attracted me to this scene.
Fireworks, Las Vegas
“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.”
From the Declaration of Independence, signed July 4, 1776. Written by Thomas Jefferson (1762-1826). 3rd US President (1801-09).
To see an engraving of the original and George Washington’s personal printed copy, go here.
To read the entire Declaration of Independence, go on to the next page.
U.S. Flags. Westerville Ohio.
Imagine being able to take a picture now, and then change the point of focus later on. Is this possible? It is according to Lytro .
Dog in Flight
Capturing action is a matter of choosing the right shutter speed. You have a lot of options from a sharp subject against a blurred background to a sharp background with a blurred subject, or both blurred, or a sharp subject and a sharp background.
Saibaba Dance Drama
Shooting “events” is both challenging and rewarding. The photographer has very little control over the lighting and the position of the subjects (unlike most other kinds of photography), so you make the most of what happens and improvise. Shooting events will do wonders for your photographic skills, not to mention the eye-catching photos that can be captured.
50mm lens with aperture blades set to f/2
Mastering exposure is a huge step toward better images. But to make your camera do its exposure tricks, you need to speak its language, and it’s not hard to learn. Apertures, shutter speeds, and ISO settings are exposure’s “Big 3”. Not only are they the key to technically correct exposures, they are the experienced photographer’s secret weapon in the pursuit of creative, dynamic images.
You can learn the language of exposure in this article which is part of an ongoing series of exposure articles which are linked on this page.
The Colorado River, Dead Horse Point
You have your photo all planned out long before you click the shutter, but the moment arrives and things don’t work out like you had envisioned them. What do you do? Maybe you should take the photo anyway.