Browsing all posts in composition.

Creating a Photo Montage

Recently I was invited to join the F.O.A.M. group on Flickr. F.O.A.M. stands for: Food Outside Abstract Myself Participants in the group take daily photos of food, outside, an abstract shot, and a shot of themselves, then arrange the shots into a montage (a term often used interchangeably with “collage” and “mosaic”, but they’re really all [...]

Straightening a Photo in Photoshop

I was recently hired to do the photography for a wine event at a local restaurant. Much to my chagrin I discovered that, in a couple of photos, my tripod wasn’t quite straight at the time, and I ended up taking a few slightly crooked pictures. What may have once been a BIG problem is [...]

Fix My Photo – Flagstaff from Mars Hill

I was recently in Flagstaff, Arizona, hanging out for the weekend while my husband had to work a job for the local hospital. I drove up to the top of Mars Hill, from which the entirety of Flagstaff was laid out before me for my viewing pleasure. It was the middle of the day. The [...]

Freelensing

While perusing the Internet for new photography techniques, I came across something referred to as “freelensing”. This technique is achieved by detaching the lens from the camera but holding it in place, then shifting the lens around to focus the shot. Shafts of light are “leaked” into the image, a high degree of bokeh is [...]

Bokeh

The term bokeh refers to the out-of-focus areas of an image, when using a shallow depth-of-field to focus on something in the foreground of an image. To achieve it, simply focus on something in the foreground while using the lowest numbered f-stop possible on your camera/lens combination. Using the “macro” setting (typically a flower icon) [...]

Four Things Photography Has Taught Me

1. Patience.  It has never been my strong suit. Yet it is absolutely required to first learn photography, then to exercise what you’ve learned. I used to get frustrated because I couldn’t make the shot happen – the one that I envisioned within my mind’s eye. Now, I try more often (it’s still a work [...]

Timing is Everything

You have the latest gear. You have the most incredible setting. You have the best lighting. You’ve got all the know-how. But for some shots, some images, some memories… all that don’t mean nuthin’, baby, unless you’ve got great timing. Share your examples of great timing in the comments! Photo credits (in order of appearance): [...]

How the Heck Did They Do That?

I’d like to have a little bit of fun today. I’m going to post several photos that I found while wandering through Flickr’s Creative Commons. Each photo’s composition and/or effect is cool, and different, and not immediately obvious how it was achieved. Take a look at each photo, and perhaps formulate a guess on how [...]

Long Exposure – A “Rule of Thumb” Challenge!

I’ve got a back-issue of Popular Photography Magazine sitting here in front of me (February 2009, specifically), which I was idly flipping through while talking on the phone with my husband. The cover title, “Create Magic in 5 Seconds,” caught my eye. I read the article, and decided it would be a fun challenge to [...]

Photo vs. Image

Many traditional photographers consider a “photograph” as a picture that has not been retouched or altered in any way, that remains completely unedited in the original version that came straight out of the camera. Whereas an “image” is any type of photograph or picture that has been digitally altered in any way, whether that alteration [...]